Рецепция проекта «вечного мира» И. Канта в европейском социокультурном пространстве конца ХІХ – начала ХХ столетия
Reception of the Immanuel Kant’s «eternal peace» project in the European socio-cultural space of the late 19th – early 20th centuries

Summary/Abstract: At the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries European culture and civilization were in a state of crisis. Many Europeans had lost value orientation and faith in progress; the society was permeated by pessimism about the future and eschatology as the «end of the world» concept. Nietzsche who saw this deplorable value vacuum argued for the «reappraisal» as a way to «fill» it. However, intellectual and spiritual atmosphere stimulated the social, philosophical, ethical, cultural explications and articulation of numerous contradictions and problems, including issues of war and peace. Gradually, the latter comes to the fore, questioning one of the Enlightenment’s main projects – the «perpetual peace» project. Rise of international tension, intensive processes of nation-building, emergence of nationalist movements, as well as apocalyptic forecasts about the future actualized Kant’s «eternal peace» theory, which is an important part of the debate between philosophers, historians, lawyers and politicians. European intellectual elite began to think about the «tragic dilemma: homeland – humanity». The tragedy of this dilemma was that it concerned the system of values in Europe and the further development of European civilization. In this context, European intellectuals discussed the conditions for stopping of the wars and the establishment of an international order that would establish a long-term, and ideally – a perpetual peace. In the aspect of this dilemma, the importance of the political war discourse increases. This discourse has two major subtypes: the nationalist-patriotic and humanistic-cosmopolitan. The second type of the discourse is directly connected with the Kantian idea of perpetual peace which played a key role in his philosophical reflections. Considering the conflict between natural and reasonable beginnings in history, Kant wrote about the conflicts and antagonisms, about wars, their driving forces, as well as about the evil that they cause, presenting the natural, as such, that was not yet based on the human mind. The conflict appears as a tool used by the history to reach the ultimate goal of «perpetual peace» and to build a «common law civil society». From the natural beginning the intelligent is born, from the perpetual war the perpetual peace might be achieved. Being the embodiment of the German Enlightenment Immanuel Kant believed that the human mind is able to overcome the selfish human nature and leave the war in the past. Certain members of the intellectual elite of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were aware of growing interdependence of the world. They professed pacifism and formed their own conceptually polar discourse appointed as humanistic-cosmopolitan where the «Europe / Europeans», «friends / brothers», «civilization», «humanity» concepts played key roles. Although a humanistic-cosmopolitan discourse did not prevail, a hope retained that there was a way to solve the problems by peaceful means referring to the Kantian «perpetual peace» concept. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries a socio-cultural environment was characterized by the development of pacifism as of a peacemaking movement and the gradual formation of its ideological principles that were personified in humanistic-cosmopolitan discourse. The confrontation between German intellectuals, on the one hand, and the French and British ones, on the other, was evident not only on the political-ideological level, but also on mental, cultural, historical and ideological ones. In order to understand «the 1914’s ideas» it is crucial to figure out the role that the German intellectual tradition played in these battles. Crisis in European political life of the late 19th and early 20th centuries contributed to the development of both pacifism and anti-pacifism addressing the issues of war and peace in order to solve numerous social problems. The social basis of these two movements was formed by the middle classes and ideological inspirers were representatives of the intellectual elite. Thus, on the eve of the First World War there was the exacerbation of the fundamental value dichotomy regarding the superiority of the individual or of the nation, of the individual or of the state. In terms of dichotomous approach to understanding the nature of the state the «perpetual peace» concept actualized. Intellectuals as proponents of a value controversy were aware that it is the protection of basic values and that in this struggle they act as representatives of two absolutely irreconcilable historical traditions. This standoff occurs each time in different situations and under different circumstances. And each time the value systems will stand against each other, and the coalition will consist of intellectuals who will defend these value systems, using appropriate arguments.

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