Cosmopolitan Emancipation: Blueprints from Kant's Philosophy and Eliasian Sociology

Contemporary debates in critical theory, it has been argued, have been inspired by the Kant’s understanding of the relationship between morality and politics as well as potential of political progress. In 'Towards Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical' Kant argues that perpetual peace may only be achieved as a result of rational moral behaviour , which in essence is behaviour that comes out of duty and therefore good will. In other words, through a universal morality manifesting itself in categorical imperative, moral politician seeks perpetual peace through reasons and out of duty. Quest for perpetual peace can be considered as one of the main soruces of political change in Kantian philosophy. This paper reevaluates Andrew Linklater's analysis of emancipation and cosmopolitanism which combines Kantian philosophy of history and Eliasian process sociology. Then it argues that Kant's understanding of enlightenment has been the main driving point of praxis based critical approaches that seek emancipation and Kant's philosophy has more to offer than just moral and political argumentation.