Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay
should be heard. The latter, who has chosen for a symbol the scales
of right and the sword of justice,[146] generally uses that sword not
merely to keep off all outside influences from the scales; for, when
one pan of the balance will not go down, he throws his sword into it;
and then _Væ victis_! The jurist, not being a moral philosopher, is
under the greatest temptation to do this, because it is his business
only to apply existing laws and not to investigate whether these
are not themselves in need of improvement; and this actually lower
function of his profession he looks upon as the nobler, because it
is linked to power (as is the case also in both the other faculties,
theology and medicine). Philosophy occupies a very low position
compared with this combined power. So that it is said, for example,
that she is the handmaid of theology; and the same has been said of
her position with regard to law and medicine. It is not quite clear,
however, “whether she bears the torch before these gracious ladies,
or carries the train.”
[145] Montesquieu speaks thus in praise of the English state:—“As
the enjoyment of liberty, and even its support and preservation,
consists in every man’s being allowed to speak his thoughts and
to lay open his sentiments, a citizen in this state will say or
write whatever the laws do not expressly forbid to be said or
written.” (_Esprit des Lois_, XIX. Ch. 27.) Hobbes is opposed to
all free discussion of political questions and to freedom as a
source of danger to the state. [Tr.]
[146] Kant is thinking here not of the sword of justice, in the
moral sense, but of a sword which is symbolical of the executive
power of the actual law. [Tr.]
That kings should philosophise, or philosophers become kings, is not
to be expected. But neither is it to be desired; for the possession
of power is inevitably fatal to the free exercise of reason. But
it is absolutely indispensable, for their enlightenment as to the
full significance of their vocations, that both kings and sovereign
nations, which rule themselves in accordance with laws of equality,
should not allow the class of philosophers to disappear, nor forbid
the expression of their opinions, but should allow them to speak
openly. And since this class of men, by their very nature, are
incapable of instigating rebellion or forming unions for purposes of
political agitation, they should not be suspected of propagandism.
APPENDIX I
ON THE DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN MORALS AND POLITICS WITH REFERENCE TO
PERPETUAL PEACE
In an objective sense, morals is a practical science, as the sum of
laws exacting unconditional obedience, in accordance with which we
_ought_ to act. Now, once we have admitted the authority of this
idea of duty, it is evidently inconsistent that we should think of
saying that we _cannot_ act thus. For, in this case, the idea of duty
falls to the ground of itself; “_ultra posse nemo obligatur_.” Hence
there can be no quarrel between politics, as the practical science of
right, and morals, which is also a science of right, but theoretical.
That is, theory cannot come into conflict with practice. For, in that
case, we would need to understand under the term “ethics” or “morals”
a universal doctrine of expediency, or, in other words, a theory of
precepts which may guide us in choosing the best means for attaining
ends calculated for our advantage. This is to deny that a science of
morals exists.
Politics says, “Be wise as serpents”; morals adds the limiting
condition, “and guileless as doves.” If these precepts cannot stand
together in one command, then there is a real quarrel between
politics and morals.[147] But if they can be completely brought into
accord, then the idea of any antagonism between them is absurd,
and the question of how best to make a compromise between the two
points of view ceases to be even raised. Although the saying,
“Honesty is the best policy,” expresses a theory which, alas, is
often contradicted in practice, yet the likewise theoretical maxim,
“Honesty is better than any policy,” is exalted high above every
possible objection, is indeed the necessary condition of all politics.
[147] Cf. Aristotle: _Politics_, (Welldon’s trans.) IV. Ch. XIV.
“The same principles of morality are best both for individuals
and States.”
Among the ancients the connection between politics and morals
was never questioned, although there were differences of opinion
as to which science stood first in importance. Thus, while Plato
put politics second to morals, Aristotle regarded politics as the
chief science and ethics as a part of politics. This connection
between the sciences was denied by Machiavelli, who lays down
the dictum that, in the relations of sovereigns and states, the
ordinary rules of morality do not apply. See _The Prince_, Ch.
XVIII. “A Prince,” he says, “and most of all a new Prince, cannot
observe all those rules of conduct in respect of which men are
accounted good, being frequently obliged, in order to preserve
his Princedom, to act in opposition to good faith, charity,
humanity, and religion. He must therefore keep his mind ready
to shift as the winds and tides of Fortune turn, and, as I have
already said, he ought not to quit good courses if he can help
it, but should know how to follow evil courses if he must.”
Hume thought that laxer principles might be allowed to govern
states than private persons, because intercourse between them
was not so “necessary and advantageous” as between individuals.
“There is a system of morals,” he says, “calculated for princes,
much more free than that which ought to govern private persons,”
(_Treatise_, III., Part II., Sect. IX.) [Tr.]
The Terminus of morals does not yield to Jupiter, the Terminus of
force; for the latter remains beneath the sway of Fate. In other
words, reason is not sufficiently enlightened to survey the series
of predetermining causes which would make it possible for us to
predict with certainty the good or bad results of human action, as
they follow from the mechanical laws of nature; although we may hope
that things will turn out as we should desire. But what we have to
do, in order to remain in the path of duty guided by the rules of
wisdom, reason makes everywhere perfectly clear, and does this for
the purpose of furthering her ultimate ends.
The practical man, however, for whom morals is mere theory, even
while admitting that what ought to be can be, bases his dreary
verdict against our well-meant hopes really on this: he pretends
that he can foresee from his observation of human nature, that men
will never be willing to do what is required in order to bring
about the wished-for results leading to perpetual peace. It is
true that the will of all individual men to live under a legal
constitution according to the principles of liberty—that is to
say, the distributive unity of the wills of all—is not sufficient
to attain this end. We must have the collective unity of their
united will: all as a body must determine these new conditions. The
solution of this difficult problem is required in order that civil
society should be a whole. To all this diversity of individual wills
there must come a uniting cause, in order to produce a common will
which no distributive will is able to give. Hence, in the practical
realisation of that idea, no other beginning of a law-governed
society can be counted upon than one that is brought about by force:
upon this force, too, public law afterwards rests. This state of
things certainly prepares us to meet considerable deviation in actual
experience from the theoretical idea of perpetual peace, since we
cannot take into account the moral character and disposition of a
law-giver in this connection, or expect that, after he has united a
wild multitude into one people, he will leave it to them to bring
about a legal constitution by their common will.
It amounts to this. Any ruler who has once got the power in his
hands will not let the people dictate laws for him. A state which
enjoys an independence of the control of external law will not
submit to the judgment of the tribunals of other states, when it
has to consider how to obtain its rights against them. And even a
continent, when it feels its superiority to another, whether this be
in its way or not, will not fail to take advantage of an opportunity
offered of strengthening its power by the spoliation or even conquest
of this territory. Hence all theoretical schemes, connected with
constitutional, international or cosmopolitan law, crumble away into
empty impracticable ideals. While, on the other hand, a practical
science, based on the empirical principles of human nature, which
does not disdain to model its maxims on an observation of actual
life, can alone hope to find a sure foundation on which to build up a
system of national policy.
Now certainly, if there is neither freedom nor a moral law founded
upon it, and every actual or possible event happens in the mere
mechanical course of nature, then politics, as the art of making
use of this physical necessity in things for the government of
men, is the whole of practical wisdom and the idea of right is an
empty concept. If, on the other hand, we find that this idea of
right is necessarily to be conjoined with politics and even to be
raised to the position of a limiting condition of that science, then
the possibility of reconciling them must be admitted. I can thus
imagine a moral politician, that is to say, one who understands the
principles of statesmanship to be such as do not conflict with
morals; but I cannot conceive of a political moralist who fashions
for himself such a system of ethics as may serve the interest of
statesmen.
The moral politician will always act upon the following
principle:—“If certain defects which could not have been avoided
are found in the political constitution or foreign relations of a
state, it is a duty for all, especially for the rulers of the state,
to apply their whole energy to correcting them as soon as possible,
and to bringing the constitution and political relations on these
points into conformity with the Law of Nature, as it is held up as a
model before us in the idea of reason; and this they should do even
at a sacrifice of their own interest.” Now it is contrary to all
politics—which is, in this particular, in agreement with morals—to
dissever any of the links binding citizens together in the state
or nations in cosmopolitan union, before a better constitution is
there to take the place of what has been thus destroyed. And hence
it would be absurd indeed to demand that every imperfection in
political matters must be violently altered on the spot. But, at the
same time, it may be required of a ruler at least that he should
earnestly keep the maxim in mind which points to the necessity of
such a change; so that he may go on constantly approaching the end
to be realised, namely, the best possible constitution according to
the laws of right. Even although it is still under despotic rule,
in accordance with its constitution as then existing, a state may
govern itself on republican lines, until the people gradually become
capable of being influenced by the mere idea of the authority of law,
just as if it had physical power. And they become accordingly capable
of self-legislation, their faculty for which is founded on original
right. But if, through the violence of revolution, the product of
a bad government, a constitution more in accord with the spirit of
law were attained even by unlawful means, it should no longer be
held justifiable to bring the people back to the old constitution,
although, while the revolution was going on, every one who took part