The Trial of Judgment: A Note on Kant and the Paradoxes of Internationalism

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Abstract
This article is a philosophical critique of the possibility of internationalist reform in world politics. Starting with a description of the paradoxes and problems of modern internationalism, the article attempts to reinterpret the problem of internationalism in the light of one classical formulation of this problem: that of Immanuel Kant. Doing this, the article attempts to demonstrate that the very same conceptual framework that has made earlier interpretations of Kantian political philosophy prey to conflict is also what makes modern internationalism look paradoxical, and that this situation can be improved by a shift in philosophical and textual focus when making sense of Kant. The article then proposes a reformulation of the philosophical foundations of modern internationalism, and seeks to recover an autonomous way of reflecting upon international politics by circumventing the conceptual tensions between structure and change and between universalism and pluralism which animate most international relations theory.

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