Abstract
In "Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose" Kant claims that nature itself drives human society towards the point where the freedom of each (including “continual antagonism among its members") coexists with the freedom of all. Adorno interprets Kant as proposing that the violence and horror of human history is the precondition for achieving peace and justice. Thus, unfreedom is the precondition of freedom. Yet Kant's critical philosophy makes it difficult to see how nature could be credited with such rational purposiveness. This talk will explore the ramifications of this claim.

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