Immanuel Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals: A Commentary

by Dieter Schönecker, Allen W. Wood

Overview

A defining work of moral philosophy, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals has been highly influential and famously difficult. Dieter Schönecker and Allen Wood make clear the ways this work forms the basis of our modern moral outlook and how moral law relates to freedom and free will within Kant’s overall philosophy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674430136
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/05/2015
Edition description:	Translatio
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	834,907
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.10(h) x 0.90(d)
Language:	German

About the Author

Dieter Schönecker is Professor of Philosophy at Universität Siegen.

Allen W. Wood is Ruth Normal Halls Professor at Indiana University, Bloomington, and Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor, Emeritus, at Stanford University.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 Kant's Preface: The Metaphysics of Morals and the Strategy of the Groundwork 1

1.1 The Task, Method, and Transitions of the Groundwork 1

1.2 The Concept and Idea of a Metaphysics of Morals 14

1.3 Summary 30

2 Section I of the Groundwork: The Good Will, Duty, and the Derivation of the Categorical Imperative 32

2.1 The Structure and Argument of GMS I 32

2.2 The Good Will 34

2.2.1 The Conditioned Worth of Gifts of Nature 34

2.2.2 The Conditioned Worth of Gifts of Fortune 40

2.2.3 The Efficacy and Effects of the Good Will 41

2.2.4 The Teleological Argument 47

2.3 Duty and Respect 50

2.3.1 From the Concept of the Good Will to the Concept of Duty 51

2.3.2 The Three Propositions Regarding Duty 54

2.3.2.1 The First Proposition Regarding Duty as Acting out of Respect 58

2.3.2.2 The Second Proposition Regarding Duty: The Objective Law 76

2.3.2.3 The Third Proposition Regarding Duty 78

2.4 The Derivation of the Categorical Imperative 89

2.5 Summary 93

3 Section II of the Groundwork: Practical Reason, Imperatives, and Kant's Formulas 95

3.1 The Structure and Basic Argument of GMS IT 95

3.2 The Practical Faculty of Reason and the Division of Imperatives 97

3.2.1 Imperatives as Objective Rational Principles for Beings That Are at Once Sensuous and Rational 98

3.2.2 Categorical and Hypothetical Imperatives 107

3.3 The Possibility of Hypothetical Imperatives 115

3.4 The Formulations of the Categorical Imperative and Kant's Examples 122

3.4.1 Enumerating the Various Formulas 123

3.4.2 The Derivation of Particular Duties: Kant's Formulas and His Examples 125

3.4.2.1 The Formula of Universalizability and the Formula of the Law of Nature 125

3.4.2.2 The Formula of Humanity as End in Itself 141

3.4.2.3 Autonomy and the Realm of Ends 156

3.4.3 The Categorical Imperative and the Relationship of Its Formulas to One Another 164

3.5 Summary 172

4 Section III of the Groundwork: The Deduction of the Categorical Imperative 175

4.1 The Structure and Task of GMS III 175

4.2 Freedom and Morality 179

4.2.1 The Thesis of Analyticity 179

4.2.2 The Presupposition of Freedom 191

4.3 The Deduction of the Categorical Imperative 205

4.4 Summary 215

5 Bibliography 219

5.1 Kant 219

5.2 Secondary Literature 221

Index 229

Editorial Reviews

Dieter Schönecker and Allen W. Wood highlight in this book Kant’s most important and moving ideas, above all his idea of the incomparable worth of human autonomy, while pulling no punches about the shortcomings of Kant’s arguments. They carefully explicate and disambiguate Kant’s central concepts and discuss in detail the most notorious problems of interpretation. Kant’s little book is dense and obscure at some of the most crucial points. Students always need a commentary, and this one is very welcome indeed.
— Paul Guyer, Brown University

From the Publisher

Dieter Schönecker and Allen W. Wood highlight in this book Kant’s most important and moving ideas, above all his idea of the incomparable worth of human autonomy, while pulling no punches about the shortcomings of Kant’s arguments. They carefully explicate and disambiguate Kant’s central concepts and discuss in detail the most notorious problems of interpretation. Kant’s little book is dense and obscure at some of the most crucial points. Students always need a commentary, and this one is very welcome indeed.

Paul Guyer