Abstract

The article examines Kant’s philosophical legacy with an emphasis on the political and legal plane of the innovative and currently extremely relevant research of the German thinker. In particular, both systematic and historical ways of posing the question of the possibilities of achieving and establishing long-term peace are highlighted. Regarding the historical aspect, two paradigms of Western political and legal thinking are distinguished: Aristotelian and Machiavellian; the first – with an emphasis on values, the second – on pragmatic interest, conditionally speaking, the «confrontational model». It is shown that Kant, among his modern predecessors, was more inclined towards the French spiritual tradition, in particular, to the approaches of J.-J. Rousseau. It is emphasized that for Kant, based on his moral and ethical approaches, the idea of individual freedom is key – it is also relevant for Kant’s research on political and legal issues. It is demonstrated that, interpreting man not only as an inhabitant of the natural world, but also as an inhabitant of the world of free will, Kant interprets freedom as a political category. The peculiarity of Kant’s intellectual efforts aimed at finding a mechanism that would make it possible to prevent wars is emphasized, although the philosopher understood that peace is not a natural human state. It is revealed that the philosopher’s key intention was a call for such a general legal civil state, within the framework of which a state of perpetual peace should be established between all states, while the main hopes were placed on states that profess a republican system and are ready, in particular, to conduct intensive trade with each other. It is noted that this approach of Kant, albeit only locally, was successfully demonstrated in the second half of the twentieth century in Western Europe. Special attention is paid to the so-called «preliminary» articles of Kant and their relevance for modernity is shown, in particular, in the case of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The continuity in the issues of war and peace between Kant and Karl Jaspers is emphasized, thus demonstrating the significance of the Protestant spiritual culture, which is based on the «ethics of responsibility». The correct idea of Kant is also emphasized, according to which, in contrast to countries with a republican form of government, tyrannies and dictatorships, not being accountable to their population, are much more inclined to unleash wars of aggression, therefore, they are, in fact, ready not for «perpetual peace», but for «perpetual war». In this sense, the question of the relationship between different civilizational types, of the «clash of civilizations» has become quite logical.