Kant’s Dual Commitment: Human Rights, State Sovereignty, and the Path to Perpetual Peace

Abstract

This paper examines the core tension in Immanuel Kant’s political and international thought: his simultaneous commitment to universal human rights and the sovereign rights of states. Michael Doyle argued that Kant’s simultaneous defense of both human rights and the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states is logically contradictory¹². This paper demonstrates that no such contradiction exists in Kant’s systematic framework, with a central focus on his foundational claim that the state is a “moral personality.” The paper also analyzes Kant’s teleological account of “Nature’s guarantee” of perpetual peace, clarifies how his regulative use of teleology shapes his vision of international order, and distinguishes his position from both contemporary cosmopolitan liberalism and political realism.