Kant's Lectures on Ethics
A Critical Guide

Featuring fifteen new essays, this book is the only volume devoted to a scholarly study of Kant's lectures on ethics.

Lara Denis (Edited by), Oliver Sensen (Edited by)

9781108454155, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 March 2018

309 pages, 1 b/w illus.
23 x 15.3 x 1.8 cm, 0.48 kg

This is the first book devoted to an examination of Kant's lectures on ethics, which provide a unique and revealing perspective on the development of his views. In fifteen newly commissioned essays, leading Kant scholars discuss four sets of student notes reflecting different periods of Kant's career: those taken by Herder (1762–4), Collins (mid-1770s), Mrongovius (1784–5) and Vigilantius (1793–4). The essays cover a diverse range of topics, from the relation between Kant's lectures and the Baumgarten textbooks, to obligation, virtue, love, the highest good, freedom, the categorical imperative, moral motivation and religion. Together they provide the reader with a deeper and fuller understanding of the evolution of Kant's moral thought. The volume will be of interest to a range of readers in Kant studies, ethics, political philosophy, religious studies and the history of ideas.

Foreword J. B. Schneewind
Introduction Lara Denis and Oliver Sensen
Part I. The Sources: 1. Kant's lectures on ethics and Baumgarten's moral philosophy Stefano Bacin
2. Herder: religion and moral motivation Patrick R. Frierson
3. Collins: Kant's proto-critical position Manfred Kuehn
4. Mrongovius II: a supplement to the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals Jens Timmermann
5. Vigilantius: morality for humans Robert B. Louden
Part II. Practical Philosophy: 6. Ancient insights in Kant's conception of the highest good Stephen Engstrom
7. Kant's history of ethics Allen W. Wood
8. Moral obligation and free will Oliver Sensen
9. The elusive story of Kant's permissive laws B. Sharon Byrd
10. On the logic of imputation in the Vigilantius lecture notes Joachim Hruschka
Part III. Ethics: 11. Freedom, ends, and the derivation of duties in the Vigilantius notes Paul Guyer
12. Proper self-esteem and duties to oneself Lara Denis
13. Virtue, self-mastery, and the autocracy of practical reason Anne Margaret Baxley
14. Love Jeanine Grenberg
15. Love of honor, emulation, and the psychology of the devilish vices Houston Smit and Mark Timmons
Works cited
Index.

Subject Areas: Educational: Religious studies [YQR], Political science & theory [JPA], History of ideas [JFCX], Religious ethics [HRAM1], Religion: general [HRA], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], History of Western philosophy [HPC], Philosophy [HP], European history [HBJD]