Kant and the dark truth about peace: a new look at humanity

Kant and the dark truth about peace: a new look at humanity

Next Friday, March 7, a new ten -part essay series starts on the program "Ö1 Essay". The philosopher Thomas Macho was inspired to select and comment on classic philosophical texts. Immanuel Kant's important font is "for eternal peace". This bears an optimistic heading, while Kant actually draws a rather realistic picture of man and his nature. In 1795 Kant wrote this text, motivated by a tavern, and describes the darkness of human relationships in which war and conflict belong to nature. The comment is read by Philipp Hauß and offers exciting insights into one of the central works of the Enlightenment.

But not only the philosophical considerations are important in the news. The current debate about suicides takes an alarming turn. According to the WHO, more people die every year from suicide than from wars and violent clashes. The numbers are particularly terrifying in Germany: in 2015, more people died suicide than in traffic accidents or other forms of violence. However, such statistics receive little attention in the media. One reason for this is the so-called "Werther effect", which says that reports on suicides, whether real or fictional, often lead to imitation. This happened, for example, in 2009 according to the suicide of the national goalkeeper Robert Enke, whose media presence the suicide rate increased strongly at short notice, as [the standard] reported.

In contrast to the violent realities that people have to deal with today, as they are discussed in the context of the suicide debate, are there in contrast to the violent realities. It is important to illuminate such topics and to bring philosophical insights into their complex relationships in order to develop a better understanding of human nature and the pursuit of peace.