Kant’s Political Realism. A Possible Lesson Three Hundred Years After His Birth

The article focuses on the political thought of Immanuel Kant. The thesis that Kant’s stance belongs to the approach of so-called “political realism” is discussed with reference to the essays on Perpetual Peace (1795) and on the Question of the Enlightenment (1784). In particular, the combination of reality-oriented strategic reason and an idea- oriented, but not utopian, perspective in Kant’s formulation of political proposals is high- lighted and examined. The aim is to stress the following consequences for Kant’s anthro- pological view of man: his belief in human reason, the nature and role of philosophy, the moral agency of citizens, and the balance between moral agency and the duties of citizen- ship. What emerges is the complexity of a philosopher who, by combining normative faith and pragmatic realism, can still offer fruitful challenges for building a peaceful world and society.