Kant's Moral and Legal Philosophy

This collection brings together in translation the finest postwar German-language scholarship on Kant's moral and legal philosophy.

Karl Ameriks (Edited by), Otfried Höffe (Author)

9781107451483, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 June 2014

344 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.8 cm, 0.48 kg

This volume brings to English readers the finest postwar German-language scholarship on Kant's moral and legal philosophy. Examining Kant's relation to predecessors such as Hutcheson, Wolff, and Baumgarten, it clarifies the central issues in each of Kant's major works in practical philosophy, including The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, The Critique of Practical Reason, and The Metaphysics of Morals. It also examines the relation of Kant's philosophy to politics. Collectively, the essays in this volume provide English readers with a direct view of how leading German philosophers are now regarding Kant's revolutionary practical philosophy, one of the outstanding achievements of German thought.

1. Introduction Karl Ameriks and Otfried Höffe
Part I. Early Conceptions: 2. Hutcheson and Kant Dieter Henrich
3. The theory of obligation in Wolff, Baumgarten, and the early Kant Clemens Schwaiger
Part II. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: 4. What is the purpose of a metaphysics of morals? Some observations on the preface to the groundwork of the metaphysics of morals Ludwig Siep
5. The transition from common rational to philosophical rational moral knowledge in the groundwork Dieter Schönecker
6. Reason practical in its own right Gerold Prauss
7. Kant's justification of the role of maxims in ethics Michael Albrecht
Part III. Critique of Practical Reason: 8. The form of the maxim as the determining ground of the will (critique of practical reason, §§ 4-6, 27-30) Otfried Höffe
9. On the concept of an object of pure practical reason (chapter two of the analytic of practical reason) Annemarie Pieper
10. The dialectic of pure practical reason in the second critique (cprr 107-121) Eckart Förster
11. The postulates of pure practical reason Friedo Ricken
Part IV. Legal and Political Philosophy: 12. On how to acquire something external, and especially on the right to things (a commentary on the metaphysics of morals §§ 10-17) Kristian Kühl
13. 'The civil constitution in a republican state shall be a republican one' Wolfgang Kersting
14. Commentary on Kant's treatment of constitutional right (metaphysics of morals II: general remark A, §§ 51-52
conclusion, appendix) Bernd Ludwig
15. Refusing sovereign power - the relation between politics and philosophy in the modern age Volker Gerhardt.

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD]