Introduction

In Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose, Immanuel Kant defines cosmopolitanism as being “the matrix within which all the original capacities of the human race may develop.” In the broadest sense, Kant's cosmopolitanism can be understood as being concerned with the cultivation of a global environment within which everyone can fully develop his or her human capacities. Kant expands on what establishing this matrix entails when he proclaims that, “the greatest problem for the human species, the solution of which nature compels him to seek, is that of attaining a civil society, which can administer justice universally.” There are two important distinctions that should immediately be made from these passages when understanding Kant's cosmopolitanism. One distinction involves understanding the components embroiled in creating a matrix of cosmopolitan law. This includes formulating what is to be meant by universal justice, a global civil society and the moral value assigned to human capacities. The other involves synthesizing these principles with Kant's assertion that nature compels us to administer justice universally and that all human beings have original capacities that nature obliges us to fully develop. In this regard, there exist two strands in Kant's cosmopolitanism. One is concerned with what some might consider a naturalistic teleology and the other is concerned with the formal principles involved in creating universal justice and cosmopolitan law.