PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY AND LAW IN KANT

Abstract

This paper aims to present an initial discussion of Kant’s Philosophy of History and its relation to the Law, as well as to understand and analyze what we believe to be a central aspect of this German philosopher: the fact that freedom is behind the progress humanity. Defending this brings us to the central issue that we intend to address during the execution of this work: what kind of freedom and what kind of progress can we refer to Kant's thought when we pronounce such a statement? A study of freedom in the context of a philosophy of history forces us to came across with some assumptions, such as the idea that human history is always an ascension from the most primitive to the most civilized of the worlds; or that we are on an ascension to perpetual peace and enlightenment; that we are moving towards a cosmopolitan life. Such premises tell us, in advance, a sense of freedom and, before that, we see that these initial prerogatives lead us to believe that humanity is in a continuous progress that has at its base an ideal of freedom. Indeed, by a bibliographic research, we will examine in this article only one of many ways of interpreting Kant’s Philosophy of History trying to analyze the thesis that human freedom, in its external sense, is in a continuous progress, what can be seen from perspective of Law.