Global ethics and Kant’s Perpetual Peace

Prof. Dr. Hans Küng has devoted himself to the project on “global ethic” under the slogan “No World Peace without Religious Peace” for more than a decade. In his essay “A Global Ethic in World Politics: The Middle Way Between ‘Real Politics’ and ‘Ideal Politics’” (International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Fall, 1999), Published by: Springer), he suggests: “A worldwide dialogue, a global dialogue, has already been set in motion that should lead to a consensus on shared values, standards, and basic attitudes, to a world ethic, a global ethic.” While this statement is hardly opposable, the question is always how we can attain such agreement in our increasingly pluralistic world. It is particularly difficult and important in case of religion, amidst the mounting tensions between different religious beliefs all over the world. For those who hold that we could have different fundamental beliefs and that these differences could be reconcilable, the solution prescribed is often “dialogue and tolerance”. Kant, however, might be of a different view, as he pronounces clearly that all historical faiths, including the historical Christian religion, should be transformed to the only one genuine and pure religion in the end, which is based entirely on reason. For Kant, our agreed values and standards, if any, can stem from nowhere except our own reason. Dialogue and tolerance without principles may result in nothing more than yet another occasion for restatement, or even reinforcement of one’s own private beliefs or political claims. As Kant notes when he elucidates his idea of “cosmopolitan Intent” (weltbürgerlicher Absich), “ethical community” and “eternal peace”: “in erecting a power and a kingdom for itself within the human species, in the form of a community according to the laws of virtue that proclaims the victory over evil and, under its dominion, assures the world of an eternal peace.” (Rel 6:124) Existing political community is thus still in the ethical state of nature. (Rel 6:97) In this paper, it would be argued that, if we do not follow the teachings of Confucius and Kant, and the human race do not progress further from the current stage of civilization and pay higher regard to our moral vocation (moralisiert), “one cannot say ahead of time whether the discord that is so natural to our species will in the end prepare a hell of ills for us in however civilized a condition, in that nature will perhaps annihilate again, through barbaric devastations, this condition and all the previous steps of culture.” (KGS 8:25) In fact, as Kant cautions us, if we assume that the nature is purposive in its parts but purposeless as a whole, then we cannot extricate ourselves from the rule of blind chance. (see KGS 8:25) In this paper, three questions will be discussed: I. About what is dialogue; II. How is peace between the religions possible. III. The ethical community and perpetual peace. Nowadays, the world is full of threats such as nuclear weapons, environmental pollution, terrorism…, and many believe that our world is drawing near to its end. I have to admit frankly that I do not have the slightest idea about it, but I know that, as Kant enlightens us with his philosophy, our existence and future must be determined by ourselves.