Morality and politics in Kant's Philosophy of history

A good place to start thinking about the theme for this conference, "Toward Greater Human Solidarity: Options for a Plural World," is Immanuel Kant's work on history and, in particular, his thoughts concerning the possibility of "perpetual peace." I say this even though there are extremely troubling aspects to Kant's thoughts on history, and despite the fact that Kant would seem to be offering us little more than 'an abstract and homogenized unity' when it comes to talk of world peace. For questions about human solidarity, and of course of race, progress, politics, and war, these questions need to begin with the philosophers of the Western Enlightenment, with Voltaire and Herder, with Kant, Schiller, and Hegel, since these are the thinkers who in taking up this series of questions managed also to create a framework within which all subsequent discussions seem to have taken place. And it is Kant to whom we must turn first since among all these philosophers it is Kant's work that seems to be most present in the way at least some of us appear to be thinking about freedom and peace today. It is with this in mind, therefore, that I propose we take up Kant's texts as we consider our "options for a plural world."