I explore the role of practical necessity in Kant’s essay Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim. This form of necessity arises on the basis of social and interstate antagonism and Kant appeals to it with the aim of avoiding the introduction of a standpoint that is external to the agents whose attitudes and actions are being described. In connection with the role that Kant accords to practical necessity in the establishment of the legal and political conditions required to fulfil the ‘plan of nature’ in the course of history, I argue that in this essay he fails to identify a mechanism that would explain a fundamental moral change in that which motivates human beings once these conditions have been established. This in turn invites questions concerning the kind of universal history that Kant proposes. In particular, I argue that the choice of historical material that it demands could, in certain circumstances, be regarded as counterpurposive in relation to the aim of nature of which Kant speaks in the same essay.

中文翻译：

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康德宇宙史观的实践必要性和自然计划的实现

我探讨了实际必要性在康德的《具有世界性目标的普世历史思想》中的作用。这种必然形式是在社会和国家间的对立基础上产生的，康德呼吁这样做，目的是避免引入描述其态度和行动的主体外部的立场。关于康德在建立历史过程中实现“自然计划”所需的法律和政治条件过程中赋予实际必要性的作用，我认为在本文中他没有找到一种机制来解释一旦建立了这些条件，就会在根本上改变道德，从而激励人类。反过来，这又引发了有关康德提出的普遍史类型的问题。特别是，