Cosmopolitan law and reason in Kant

Abstract

From Kant's cosmopolitan proposal, over and above its placing w it h in t he more specif ic space of doctrine of right, important elements emerge in connection with the project of a "critiue of reason", considered in all its architectural extension, and therefore, ultimately, in relation to what Kant really means by "human reason". And indeed - this is the hypothesis that guides the present work - precisely starting from what the treatment of cosmopolitan law reveals about the complexity of the concept of reason it becomes possible to understand in a theoretically informed way the meaning of the political-legal proposal that pervades Kant's late maturity. In order to verify this hypothesis, the present paper aims, first of all, to highlight the elements of tension in Kant's text which, if they do not always justify, certainly encourage the proliferation of various, of ten no t reconcilable readings of cosmopolitan law and the theme of hospitality; secondly, it aims to reconsider cosmopolitan law in a broader perspective, linked to the way in which Kant conceives the relationship between humanity and rationality; and finally, in the light of this perspective, to re-examine the antagonistic tension that, within the Kantian concept of hospitality, runs through the relations between visitor and visited, host and guest.