The Case for Humanity (Part II)

“And this is the rub of Kant’s political critique of nationalist-type arguments. If the nationalist allows too much deviation from the shared identity of the nation, then his society risks becoming one of liberal individuals.”

Introduction

In my earlier article for this series, I presented some of the major arguments for dismissing universalistic internationalism in favor of a nationalist approach. Firstly, I acknowledged that many actually existent international institutions suffer from a substantial democratic deficit. Secondly, I argued that many of those same institutions have clearly privileged the interests of certain countries over those of others. And, thirdly, I suggested that nationalist critics offered a relevant point about the value of cultural pluralism against the potential homogenizing impact of a global order. This last point was especially crucial, since it struck to the philosophical core of the debate between universalistic internationalists and nationalists. While the internationalist can argue that their favored institutions can be reformed or altered to meet empirical challenges of the type discussed above, a philosophical argument about first principles is harder to disprove by simply presenting alternative organizational schemes. It can only be addressed by presenting an alternate philosophical argument which is more convincing or attractive to readers.

In this second of three articles, I am going to briefly sketch out such a philosophical vision. I will argue that we should reject the virtues of nationalism in favor of a more individualistic approach to communal organization. This argument will draw from a number of philosophical sources, but the most notable will be Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard, and Martha Nussbaum. In this essay, I will focus mainly on the Kantian argument against nationalism. Kant provides a powerful set of philosophical arguments as to why we should reject the appeal of cultural “heteronomy” in favor of free individuals independently willing the moral law.

However, his argument is largely formal and leans heavily on an interpretation of human beings as rational animals first and foremost. As appealing as this vision is, I think it is inadequate as a persuasive philosophy. It does not sufficiently account for the human need for meaning and belonging, which I have discussed at some length elsewhere. And indeed, the power of the Kantian vision has been such that left-wing thinkers inspired by Kant (and other rationalists) have been far too willing to dismiss these needs as vague, outdated, or irrational. Bentham and Marx are perhaps the most prominent which come to mind, though one could point to figures like Sam Harris more contemporaneously. I think this sense that liberalism and leftism are indifferent to questions of meaning is one of the reasons their universalism is being rejected in favor of nationalism. So in Part III, I will engage in an extended discussion of Kierkegaard and Nussbaum to show that these needs can be answered within a progressive, individualist framework.