14 - Refusing Sovereign Power – The Relation between Philosophy and Politics in the Modern Age

Summary

There is an intrinsic contradiction in a public treaty containing covert or ‘secret articles.’ For such provisions cancel precisely the open and public character that essentially belongs to the idea of a treaty. Kant is therefore indulging in obvious irony when he announces a secret article of his own in his essay Toward Perpetual Peace (8:368). And if we then examine the actual content of his article, we see this irony turning into an expression of the most bitter sarcasm. Firstly, this secret article must be publicly ‘dictated,’ and secondly, it demands only that philosophers should not be restricted in the public expression of their views. In addition, there is supposed to be only one such article – namely, the one that Kant is here making available by publishing it. It is impossible to overlook his strategy here: like the clausula salvatoria already mentioned in his prefatory remarks, so too the ‘secret’ article Kant proposes in the second supplement to the essay is his way of ridiculing the covert practices of court and cabinet politics in his own time.

This impression is amply reinforced by the justification that Kant proceeds to offer for his ‘secret’ article. He points out how it could only damage the standing of governments, after all, if they were ever to consult their own ‘subjects’ on matters concerning foreign affairs of state. It is therefore necessary to come to some strictly secret agreement before it can subsequently be made available to the public.