‘Historical Teleology, Universalism, and the Case of China in Douglas Moggach's Freedom and Perfection ’

This response to Douglas Moggach's recent book Freedom and Perfection: German Political Thought from Leibniz to Marx discusses its compelling argumentative thread, in which Leibnizian perfectionism is redefined and reframed in the thought of Kant and his successors in German political thought. Moggach's analysis is briefly examined in relation to depictions of China in Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment political thought, including that of Leibniz, Wolff, Kant, Herder, and Hegel. Kant's historical teleology, as developed in his Critique of Judgement and select essays, is curiously under-emphasized in Moggach's book. In judging history as progressing towards the goal of a cosmopolitan state, the universalist claims of Kant's political philosophy are undermined by his Eurocentric conception of historical teleology-a form of cultural chauvinism followed by Herder, Hegel, and other post-Kantians in contrast to Leibniz's or Wolff's embrace of cross-cultural equality between Europe and China. The response closes with a few thoughts on ways in which these points are related to broader issues in studying the history of European philosophy.