Nature’s Secret Plan Abstract Here in this paper I will try to explain Kant’s essay: Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View. Firstly I would briefly explain the nine principles or thesis stated by Kant and then shed some light on the much more debated part of the text. In his essay, Immanuel Kant predicted that republican forms of government would eventually dominate the world. This, he wrote, was part of nature's "secret plan". I will explain the arguments put forward by Kant to justify this domination and also shed some light on the practicality of Kant’s prediction. Other than Kant’s text, I will also include some secondary texts. Kant says that human actions are determined by natural laws like any other natural event. He says that what seems to be complex and chaotic in a single individual can be seen from the standpoint of the human race as a whole to be a steady and progressive slow evolution. Every individual, according to his own inclinations and purposes chooses his path, often in opposition to others; yet each individual and people, as if following some guiding thread, go toward a natural but to each of them unknown goal. 1. First Thesis: The creature’s capacities i.e. its abilities will be evolved to their complete extent. According to Kant, if this doesn’t happen then it is a …show more content…
The argument from nature: Kant maintains that humankind must regard its own development as one of nature's objective. History in his view at the very beginning is governed by providence and then by the humans themselves. Self-consciousness can be achieved only when people are free to govern themselves both individually and collectively. Later part requires effective representative institutions. Hence to fulfill the destiny of human kind, republicanism is a necessary