On the Unity of Idealism and Realism in the Political Thoughts of Kant and Aron

This paper highlights the necessity to reconcile idealism and realism in the political thoughts of Immanuel Kant and Raymond Aron as a condition of possibility for perpetual peace. This is because even if wars were supposed to be a step to peace, then the world has known enough wars that should have given rise to peace. Instead of asking for more wars to seek peace, we have to use the lessons learned from previous wars. In this quest for peace, the interpretations of Kant’s and Aron’s views as extreme idealism and extreme realism respectively is counter-productive because with the former, even if peace is the goal, the unsociable sociability of human nature gives rise to antagonism which conditions us to seek better ways of living with each other; while with the latter, even if power relations are a reality in international politics, we cannot ignore moral values, the quest of which justifies the existence of theories of international relations which become null and void if they glorify power relations for their own sake. Hence, the unity of political idealism and realism is posed as an antidote to the shadow and reality of war so as to help the international community to move from the state of nature to the “universal republic” or “stateless” world.