Who is the Enemy?
Perpetual Peace Project conference examines persistent questions through Kantian lens, Nov. 9-10
German philosopher Immanuel Kant's concept of perpetual peace introduced a utopian vision of permanent universal hospitality. "Such understanding of peace does not describe any real human behavior but formulates its transcendentally conditioned moral maxim. Kantian peace is an imaginary peace-to-come, a promise of a possible improvement of human coexistence in universal openness to otherness."
So describes the plenary forum launching the second annual international conference of the Perpetual Peace Project (PPP), November 9-10, 2023 in the Czech Republic. With its thematic focus, "Re-Designing Peace / Re-Imagining the Political," the assembly's lectures, workshops, and round tables take place at the University J.E. Purkyne Usti Nad Labem, under the coordination of local organizer, Michaela Fiserová.
PPP Founder, Gregg Lambert (Syracuse University) presents the closing keynote, "Who is the Real Enemy?" and joins faculty lecturers from Prešov University, Slovak Academy of Sciences, and University of Warsaw, Poland to round out two days of programming for student and faculty attendees from Eastern and Central Europe. Project co-founder, Adam Nocek (Arizona State University) leads a workshop, "Notes from the Field: On Designing Perpetual Peace Pedagogy." PPP also welcomes special guest lecturer, Alex Taek-Gwang Lee from Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea, on "Revisiting the D.M.Z."
Lambert says organizers have already begun to discuss Egypt as the possible site of a third annual Perpetual Peace Project conference.