Out of Time

Versions of many of the same global ethics issues currently on people’s minds sparked my initial interest in Kant’s practical philosophy half a century ago -- e.g., international justice, war and peace, the natural environment, artificial intelligence, and human rights. Although it would be wildly imprudent to suppose that Kantian theory should serve as a precise blueprint for contemporary policy, I do believe that we today can still learn a great deal from Kant’s perspective on global ethics. In this essay, after briefly articulating his own views on these global ethics issues, I offer some Kantian reflections on why we have unfortunately made so little progress in resolving them.