Immanuel Kant’s Moral Theory and the Idea of Imperativity in the German Philosophical Thought (late 19th – early 20th century)

Abstract

The article addresses modification of imperativity in Kant’s tradition with an emphasis on its connection to the issues of war and peace. The author demonstrates the transaction from Kant’s categorical imperative to the Baden school’s idea of value , then to the critics of the universal moral law and the declaration of the individual law in Georg Simmel’s ideas and, finally, to the postulation of “external struggle of gods” as an expression of unremovable conflict of values in Max Weber’s works. The fact that we talk here about common tradition is confirmed by great attention and by developing of their ideas through opposition to Kant’s system. The transformation coincides with the departure from the ideals proclaimed by the progressive development of the Enlightenment to the postulation of permanent economic and military conflict. In the XX and XXI centuries, in the era of the danger of nuclear war the worldview of “eternal struggle” is not only unrealistic but also unacceptable. To find ways to overcome the existing installation and to the prevalence of the desire for the agreement and harmony on the disagreement and separation requires understanding of the path that led to the present state of things.