From Professor Matthew Garrett:
The Certificate in Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory presents:
“The Illusion of Equality in Kantian Cosmopolitanism”Jameliah Bournahou (Georgia College and College of the Holy Cross)
This talk is co-sponsored by the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program.
Some scholars argue that Kant is universally egalitarian because in the essay “Toward Perpetual Peace” (1795), Kant offers new provisions that displace the racist views that he previously held in the essays on race of the 1780s. This argument presumes that Kant’s cosmopolitan philosophy is synonymous with universal egalitarianism because it is understood to be opposed to inequality. Professor Bournahou argues that Kant’s cosmopolitan philosophy is not universally egalitarian and in fact allows for inequality. Bournahou refers to a lesser recognized discussion Kant has in “Toward Perpetual Peace” where he argues that the cosmopolitan goal is to unify the nations and not the moral improvement of the species which would presumably establish universal egalitarianism.
Date: Tuesday, October 2
Time: 4:30-6:00 PM
Place: Downey 113