The essays in this volume discuss the questions at the core of Kant's pioneering work on the philosophy of history.Lively current debates about narratives of historical progress, the conditions for international justice, and the implications of globalization have prompted a renewed interest in Kant's Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim. The essays in this volume discuss the questions that are at the core of Kant's investigations.Lively current debates about narratives of historical progress, the conditions for international justice, and the implications of globalization have prompted a renewed interest in Kant's Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim. The essays in this volume discuss the questions that are at the core of Kant's investigations.Lively debates about narratives of historical progress, the conditions for international justice, and the implications of globalisation have prompted a renewed interest in Kant's Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim. The essays in this volume, written by distinguished contributors, discuss the questions that are at the core of Kant's investigations. Does the study of history convey any philosophical insight? Can it provide political guidance? How are we to understand the destructive and bloody upheavals that constitute so much of human experience? What connections, if any, can be traced between politics, economics, and morality? What is the relation between the rule of law in the nation state and the advancement of a cosmopolitan political order? These questions and others are examined and discussed in a book that will be of interest to philosophers, social and political theorists, and intellectual and cultural historians.Introduction: history as philosophy Am?lie Rorty and James Schmidt; Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim Immanuel Kant; 1. Teleology and history in Kant Henry E. Allison; 2. The purposive development of human capacities Karl Ameriks; 3. Reason as lãâ