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Work #1539 · Late

Perpetual Peace

Immanuel Kant
1795 (expanded 1796) · German
Political-philosophical essay · Critical political philosophy / Enlightenment cosmopolitanism / philosophy of international law

Kant's 1795 'Toward Perpetual Peace' — republican constitutions, a federation of free states, cosmopolitan right

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Perpetual Peace (Late)
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Emergent
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Emergent
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Emergent
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Personal
Observer · Moral Authority Reason
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Finite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Emergent
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Perpetual Peace

1795 (Basel Treaty year). The essay was composed and published in months — Kant working with characteristic speed when a topic touched current events.

Space

Perpetual Peace

Königsberg — Kant's permanent residence; the political space is European-revolutionary, with the French Republic and the post-Basel Prussian-Habsburg configuration as immediate background.

Matter

Perpetual Peace

Treaty-formed political-philosophical essay. The form is itself a thesis: international right will achieve perpetual peace through the legal-treaty form, not through utopian sentiment.

Observer

Perpetual Peace

Late Kant. The observer is the philosophical-political analyst applying Critical-rational reflection to the international situation.

Energy

Perpetual Peace

Cosmopolitan-political-philosophical energies. The essay's distinctive force is its argument that the prudential-self-interest of republican citizens, when properly constituted, converges with morality's demand for peace.

Information

Perpetual Peace

Single short volume in treaty form. Six preliminary articles, three definitive articles, two supplements, an Appendix — the formal structure carries the argumentative substance.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Perpetual Peace

Founding document of modern philosophy of international law and cosmopolitan politics. Read by Wilson and the framers of the League of Nations Covenant; cited by the UN Charter's preamble; foundational for the contemporary cosmopolitan-democratic-peace theory (Doyle, Russett); contested by realist political theory (Morgenthau) as utopian. The third definitive article on cosmopolitan right is the philosophical-historical seed of the post-1948 human-rights framework.