Panentheism and Cosmopolitanism
Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781-1832) developed a fascinating cosmopolitanism against the background of his panentheistic metaphysics. In Krause’s panentheistic cosmopolitanism, every individual, every family, every friendship, every nation, every league of peoples, and finally, the global civil society itself is called upon to realize the ideals of virtue, law, beauty, and divinity. Because in Krause’s panentheistic system of philosophy, humanity is at the centre of the Absolute, as the union of Reason and Nature, humanity is, in effect, called upon, and is capable of establishing the league of humanity as the imageof the Absolute, in and by freedom for excellence.
Benedikt Paul Göcke is Professor of the Philosophy of Religion and Philosophy of Science at Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. He is also a Research Fellow at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, University of Oxford, and a Life Member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.