Kant's Peace Theory Paper

John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace is about a few boys at a boarding school in New Hampshire. The story is centered around the friendship of two boys, Gene and Finny, at a boarding school in New Hampshire. Although in the beginning of their friendship Gene did not trust Finny, by the time he dies Gene feels as if a part of him has died, showing that he still felt closely bonded to him after all they had been through.

Kant assumed that states would act in self-interested ways and that repeated interactions would eventually lead to an expanding zone of peace – for example NATO. Like Kant’s theory, the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a model that posed that after continued repeated interactions, states would realize that it’s in their best interest to cooperate. Economic interdependency, also known as functionalism, proposes that states take cooperative ventures in nonpolitical areas such as the economy and security. This in turn will lead to greater interdependence and eventually, greater peace. Functionalism is a means to achieve peace now, starting with economic interdependence through international organizations such as the European Community. It is also a strategy in which international organizations, including the United Nations, use to promote interdependency and thus, maintain peace. Consequently, functionalism is most successful under a democratic government. Liberals

There is very little question as to what action a strict deontologist would do in the scenario for this assignment he or she would unequivocally adhere to his or her duty. The more pressing question, of course, revolves around just where that duty lies. For a deontologist, that duty would lie with the job at hand and its responsibilities. As one who took an oath to only program software in accordance to the company that he or she works for which is essentially operating as an extension of the government that wishes the programmer to 'push the button' and destroy millions of innocent lives in World War II it would strongly appear that such an individuals would consider it his or her duty to effectively start World War III.

After reading many moral theories online, anyone could be left wondering what to believe. In the final chapter 13 from “The Elements of Moral Philosophy”, James Rachels outlined what he thought would be a satisfactory ethical theory.

There is a war occuring, right in this moment, right in front of you. Much like a tender

Looking back at chapter eleven and reading on Kant, we see he endorses that knowledge, is formed by two separate things one is our actual experiences and the other is our minds own aptitude on our judgements made. If this is at all true then how do we understand what reality really is? Looking at reality we can see it can be organized by human consideration. Phenomenal reality as per Kant is the world as we experience it live. Kant also introduces Noumenal reality in which in reality as it is, independent of our own perceptions; what we commonly call “objective reality”. Kant imposes that uniform categories on reality. Our cleverness of understanding is uniform, with all functioning minds on reality. Looking at these assumptions we could think Kant’s discrepancy as the difference between human reality and pure reality. Though we could never really experience pure reality, we could really understand that our own minds don’t just come up with the world.

Although raised in the Christian faith, Immanuel Kant desired to approach the possibility of reaching perpetual peace using reason, and natural laws alone. In Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch, Kant explains the necessities required within a society that could bring about a form of perpetual peace. In doing so, Kant’s argument mostly focused on the avoidance of war, and keeping peace within the states. Although he envisioned the possibility of this peace occurring within a society, I argue that his notion of perpetual peace actually happening is inevitable. Of course, there are countless ways of approaching the argument against Kant. Therefore, by using the writings of Fahon and Weil, the argument could be shown with the support of both

War is natural, human beings can not get enough war. This was stated by Immanuel Kant in one of his famous essays “Toward Perpetual Peace-a philosophical sketch”. Immanuel Kant was a philosopher who was credited for effecting the combination of empiricist philosophy which dominated Great Britain and the rationalist philosophy that had dominated the European continent. Kant introduced a new way of thinking about the relation of the human mind to the dispassionate world and also established a powerful method of moral reasoning. Kant’s essay “Toward Perpetual Peace” was published in 1795 and the target audience was politicians.

Kant is considered a Liberal because he applies domestic liberal policies that emphasize “freedom of the members of the society” to the international system (Perpetual Peace pg. 4). By stressing the need to respect each country’s sovereignty, Kant demonstrates a tenet of Liberalism. Also, he proposes a “federation of nations” that would work together and multilateralism is another facet of Liberalism (Perpetual Peace pg 5). Kant argues for nations to adopt a “republican constitution” in the hopes of becoming the “foundation” for a “perpetual peace.” (Perpetual Peace pg. 4) His reasoning is that if all nations were republics, citizens would have the power to “determine whether or not there will be war” and would be much more analytical before

No real legs, had to fight his way to get into the regular Olympics, he won: when he got into the regular Olympics, he won, now he competes in the regular Olympics and he continues to win. If this man Oscar Pistorious doesn’t inspire you that anyone can do anything I don’t know who or what possibly can. He stands at 5” 2, has no legs, but the body he was given is his weapon he says. He was born without bones from the knees down, and had his legs amputated when he was only 11 months old. He was born in South Africa, in Sandton, Johannesburg. He was already a Paralympic champion, but he knew he could be more, he was hungry to be more. Since he has been competing in the Olympics this man, the man with no legs has beaten 49 world records. His body is truly his weapon.

Kant’s new foundation of modern science forever changed the philosophical world. He recognized defects in both the rationalists’ and the empiricists’ traditions. These two terms, rationalist and empiricist, are the two ideas that make up Epistemology. Epistemology in itself is the idea of what knowledge can be and it deals with what knowledge is and how we deal with it. Rationalism is the concept of ideas that we naturally have and deduction, this is A Priori. Empiricism is the concept in induction, sense perception and no innate ideas, which is A Posteriori. These two ideas were so different they were thought to be polar opposites. Both sides had many influential philosophers

Throughout the history of mankind there has come to be two factors that are seen as inevitable. The first is progress, humans are naturally competitive creatures who not only want to insure their own safety but also get one up on their neighbours. Progress has led to huge leaps forward, not only technologically but also socially. However, aside from progress there is another factor, war. Time and time again throughout history humans have fought and killed each other for their own selfish reasons and security. And according to political theorists such as Hobbes this is simply the state of nature, a perpetual state of ‘war of all against all’, further surmising that it is due to this that mankind is fundamentally selfish. However, just because so far, mankind’s history has consisted of an endless cycle of wars, does that mean that it must continue to be this way? Political Philosopher Immanuel Kant outlines a number of articles that he hypothesises could lead towards a perpetual peace. There are many criticisms of Kant’s perpetual peace, many argue that it is to idealistic and utopian. However, Kant doesn’t deny these claims. Instead Kant argues that if this ‘perpetual peace’ is even a remote possibility then for the good of mankind, we have a duty to try make it a reality.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a novel that focuses on the idea of war. While at Devon, Gene has to worry about the struggles of teenage life and the struggles of WWII. Gene is envious of his “best friend” Finny due to his athleticism and Gene is insecure about himself and about his relationship with Finny. This envy along with his insecurities eventually lead to him causing Finny to fall out of the tree. After Finny’s death, Gene declares that he has killed his enemy and goes off to fight in WII. Gene kills his metaphorical “enemy”, or his insecurities, during his time at devon.. The metaphor of the “enemy” provides an opposing side of the “war” that Gene fights with himself. At the end this “war” Gene successfully overcomes his paranoia and his envy. By killing his enemy, or his insecurities, Gene exemplifies the theme that war isn’t only fought between two sides but can be fought with oneself.

A Separate Peace tells the story of Gene's painful but necessary growth into adulthood, a journey of deepening understanding about his responsibility and his place in a wider world. At the beginning of the novel, the young Gene stands unconcerned, self-absorbed, by the tree that will test his true nature. By the end, Gene has suffered and inflicted suffering, and he has grown into an understanding of his own dark motives. He has lost his innocence and has gained experience.

In Africa there are children with bloated, malnourished stomachs and stick thin legs that barely support their weight. Bodies covered with dusty cloths, they walk on dirt paths without shoes. They have no hospitals or homes only unsanitary drinking wells. I have never envisioned the urbanized streets of South Africa or the educated individuals of Nigeria. In place, I have only seen the impoverished rural children that reside there. As people, we lose ourselves in the danger of a single story. Parallel to the characters in “A Separate Peace,” we base our judgements on initial perceptions that make sense rather than digging deeper to actual truths. Caught up in their small minded thoughts, Gene and Finny, a schoolboys at Devon boarding school, attempt to understand their relationship and how the ongoing world war affects them. Gene and Finny’s relationship development throughout “A Separate Peace” illustrates that blindly following initial assumptions skews perceptions of reality and creates ignorance.