Philosophie in weltbürgerlicher Bedeutung

Philosophical designs for a cosmopolitan world order have often been the harbinger of the next civilizational catastrophe. The pure formalism of a world state remained separated from reality by a vast chasm or served as a universal facade for the veiled particularity of imperialism. This work therefore follows the methodological intention of a historically critical decentering of philosophy and appreciates the cosmopolitan and supranational thinking of modernity from the distance of its historical genesis. Furthermore, it offers an original and thorough examination of cosmopolitanism throughout the thought of Immanuel Kant and evaluates its embedding in the current discussion. In preceding sections, the underlying presence of cosmopolitan implications in texts and argumentation contexts is traced, which has previously been seen as solely legitimizing the modern democratic nation-state. Discussions on the national state security paradox further illustrate that the cosmopolitan discourse is not solely committed to a pure ought, but also follows from the internal logic of security pragmatics. The systematic assessment of the book does not undermine the plurality of states but contributes to the justification of procedural norms for the realization of democratic legal structures among democratic nation-states.