CITIZENSHIP, OTHERNESS AND COSMOPOLITISM IN KANT

In the present social and political context, there is an urgent need t o reexamine attentively the theories that have founded the modern conc eption of citizenship and, in particular, to scrutinize the relation t hey have established between otherness and modern national identity. I intend to do this by resorting to Kant's writings on the philosophy o f history, and particularly his political Project for a Perpetual Peac e, in which he attempts to come to grips with the consequence of the b reakdown of the ancien regime and of the pre-modern conception of the nation in order to outline the modern principles governing the three l evels of right: of the Rechtsstaat (a state based on the rule of law); of the Volkerrecht (the people's right); and of the so-called Weltbur gerrecht (the ''cosmopolitical right''). The decisive and perhaps dist urbing idea that has to be demonstrated is that, in Kant's modern poli tical thought, there is no contradiction between nationalism and cosmo politism. Any interpretation of his thought that neglects this point w ould lead to a misunderstanding of Kant's philosophical revolution and fall back into the political as well as the metaphysical ancien regim e. We have to show: (1) that Kant's critique of Reason aims to establi sh a legislation in the sphere of knowledge itself and that it must th erefore accomplish in this sphere a ''revolution'' that distinguishes - in opposition to metaphysical universalism - different territories w ith their own constitution and legislation; (2) that the relation betw een this theoretical ''revolution'' and the political one is not only a metaphor, and that Kant's rejection of the political ancien regime c annot be correctly understood if it is not related to the theoretical model of the legitimacy of the different territories of Reason.