The Issue of Citizenship in the Work of I. Kant

The paper focuses on a big philosophical theme of man in its two basic specifications. The first one, starting from classical philosophical tradition, deals with the characteristics of good man and good society and it terminates with the resignation connected with the Renaissance thinking, reacting to a crucial axiological transformation based on the change of priorities when truth was in the shadow of usefulness. Philosophy had to reflect and reflected the transformation, too. Good man was replaced by the term good citizen and good society became civil society. A model example of this philosophical reaction is, inter alia, I. Kant. This case proves the relevance and productivity of mutual interconnection of Kant's practical philosophy and philosophy of history with "philosophy of education". The authors claim that Kant's idea of cosmopolitanism and also his other philosophical concepts could represent not only a useful device of critical analysis but they may also have a normative arsenal (the a priori principles of freedom, equality, and independence) for revitalisation and reconstruction of contemporary society, especially in connection with its nonhuman characteristics represented by the comeback of social hierarchy, and the growth of inequality and extremism. On one hand, it is the education towards citizenship or civil literacy and culture, on the other hand, it is, according to Kant, a strong republican state.