the Metaphysics of Peace; On the Metaphysics of State and the Ontological Refusal of Peace

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Hamid Malekzadeh
Political Science, Humanities, and Law, University of Kashan
10.22034/ipsan.2026.575741.1006
Abstract
This article explores the foundational questions that frame any inquiry into peace, emphasizing the metaphysical dimensions that are often implicit in discussions of political order. A primary question is: peace between whom? This question is inseparable from asking what peace entails and what it signifies. Addressing these requires first clarifying the nature of the actors involved. The article approaches peace as a political phenomenon, centering on its relation to states. it argues that conceptualizing peace solely as a political issue reveals a paradox: the state, commonly portrayed as the guarantor of peace or the resolver of conflict, instead exists in a condition where the potential for conflict or war is perpetual. This arises from the analogy between states and individuals. Like individuals, states are treated as autonomous entities, possessing a kind of selfhood that persists regardless of external civil conditions. Consequently, in the absence of stable inter-state arrangements, peace can only be provisional and contingent. The study concludes that the impossibility of enduring peace is not merely a failure of institutions or morality, but a structural consequence of the metaphysical status of the state as an autonomous political person, where peace remains a secondary, temporary phenomenon continually vulnerable to dissolution.
Keywords
metaphysics of the state, metaphysics of peace, Cognitive Metaphors, Autonomy
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Peace Studies
Volume 1, Issue 2
Spring 2025
Pages 131-156