Kant's Project of Perpetual Peace Today

The paper is an extended analysis of selected fragments of Kant's essay Toward Perpetual Peace (1795). On October 24, 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron, during an official meeting in the Vatican, presented Pope Francis with a copy of the French edition of Immanuel Kant's treatise Toward Perpetual Peace. The paper begins by emphasizing the symbolic meaning of this event, which shows the timeliness of the text, which was written almost 230 years ago. Kant appears here as a publicist who comments on the political events of his era and formulates bold normative projects for future politics. In the following, metaphors of war and peace in Kant's philosophy are reflected on and essential ideas in Toward Perpetual Peace are analysed. Although today there is no doubt that many international institutions are a practical implementation of Kant's postulates, the concept of 'perpetual peace' may still seem to be utopian. Therefore, the arguments that Kant presents in defence of the reality of his philosophical project are analysed in more detail. Particular attention is given to the so-called 'guarantees of nature' and Kant's project is confronted with the reality of contemporary politics, especially the war in Ukraine.