The impact of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) on moral theory is ubiquitous. Kantian interpretations of ethical issues in medicine, economics, sociology, and politics flourish. Of special importance is the rapidly emerging influence of Kant on the literature of international affairs; as I hope to show, the Kantian tradition in application to international affairs offers a comprehensive, sophisticated methodology of interpretation. This methodology is agent-centered, places emphasis on moral motives, and allows principles to trump consideration of consequences. From the Kantian perspective, realism turns out to be sadly misguided; ideals prove to be a surer guide than empirical certainty; and cosmopolitanism becomes mandatory.

Kantian ethics

Kant's general theory

By Kant's own admission, his theory of morals provides the foundation for his political philosophy, including its international dimension. Best known for the Critique of Pure Reason (Kant 1929), in which he undertook a “Copernician”-style revolution in metaphysics that made experience beholden to the experiencing mind, Kant in his later moral writings utilizes much of the terminology and analysis presented in his earlier theoretical reflections. If our understanding of reality is conditioned by pure concepts known prior to experience (called by Kant a priori in order to distinguish them from concepts known after experience, called a posteriori), as he had argued in the first Critique, then similarly our action is subject to rational conditions established by pure, a priori concepts.