Philosophical Innovation and Today's Troubled World

From a historical vewpoint, what our troubled world needs now, is a Socrates rather than an Alexander, a St Thomas Aquinas rather than a St Augustine, a John Locke rather than a Thomas Hobbes, an Immanuel Kant rather than a Hegel.

For those who do not know the Philosophy of Western History, Socrates is chosen before Alexander the Great, because he figures far more than Alexander as a believer in reason rather than faith as a conqueror.

Next to the end of the Christian Dark Ages around AD 1100, where we link together two of the great Christian teachers of Western history, St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas.

Among philosophers, Aquinas is said to be the greatest because unlike Augustine he was able to tone down Christian faith with Socratic Reasoning to make it more acceptable as a means for earthly progress.

The next great philosophical change came in England with the 1688 Glorious Revolution, promoted by the philosopher John Locke whose rival was Thomas Hobbes, a pusher for the old autocracy, while Locke was a pusher for the growing democracy. It was Locke who brought William and Mary over from Holland, to sit on the now ersatz English throne, to satisfy those who still wanted some sort of royalty. Locke, of course, for obvious reasons, is much more historically important than Thomas Hobbes.

Following the same path saw the entrance of two German philosophers in the late 18th century, Wilhelm Hegel and Immanuel Kant. While Hegel talked of war as a cleanser of a nation’s soul, Kant, like Locke, talked of war as only to be used as a last resort.

It is Kant who emerges well into today’s world problems, his idea of a Federation of Nations, said to be the fore-runner of today’s United Nations.

Though many critics today regard Kant’s philosophy as Old Pap, we need to be reminded of the reason that brought Kant to his conclusion of what he termed the need for Perpetual World Peace.

BB - Part Two

Though many critics today regard Kant’s philosophy as Old Pap, we need to be reminded of the reason that brought Kant to his conclusion of what he termed the need for Perpetual Peace.

As a follower of the Age of Enlightenment, and the belief that the French Revolution with all its weaknesses, was finally bringing liberty to Europe by means of the youthful Napoleon, was tremendously shocked when after his early battle successes, Napoleon threw Liberty Equality and Fraternity aside to promote himself as Emperor.

Kant came up with the declaration that from now on neither one personage nor even one nation under God can be trusted to stand for true liberty in this world. Better a multipolar Federation of Nations representing a global democracy not to be instilled by either bayonet or bullet.

From history we learn that the outcome of Kant’s reasoning was the League of Nations, followed by the United Nations, both proving unsuccessful, because both times authority remained too much with one power, first Pax Britannica, and second Pax Americana, both in their turn too much besotted with power.

The point is, if we are not yet mature enough to really carry out Kant’s reasoning, the world might have to choose between one nation still as Top Dog such as America, with nations who will not stand in line to be quietened one by one, or with a volatile system of power balance between East and West.

Maybe it is dangerous to nominate Russia and China to oppose America, yet it may be a wake-call warning America to tone down and cease rhetoric such as - America and the New World Order - The 21st Century is America’s own – and so on – which has only helped to manufacture endless more terrorist leaders like bin Laden, with US foreign policymakers proven so far to be lucky to have scored more than 5 out of ten in the rudiments of political philosophy