Pattern Two, Phase Two: State Sovereignty Preserved III

Abstract

This chapter explores a final collection of interpretations of Kant’s Perpetual Peace and considers a relatively small group of interpreters. It initially discusses the evolution of thoughts on Perpetual Peace by three writers who have written about the text more than once since the second phase of Pattern Two began to take shape with the appearance of Doyle’s article in 1983. This section of the chapter demonstrates that, within this period under consideration, several writers who consider Perpetual Peace a second (or even a third time in one instance) generally stay consistent in their interpretations of the treatise. If anything, they embrace a more state-centric view of the text and place greater importance on the practical reason for adopting the First Definitive Article in their most recent interpretations to date. Their readings of the text offer even greater support for the argument that a second phase of Pattern Two has solidified by the second half of the 1990s. The last half of the chapter closes the analysis of interpretations of Perpetual Peace with a discussion of several commentaries on the treatise that have appeared in the last two years, including one by the prominent American political philosopher John Rawls. These carry the argument of pattern formation up to the present.