Immanuel Kant introduced a new paradigm into modern moral philosophy,
first with his Groundwork for the _Metaphysics of Morals_ in 1785,
followed by his _Critique of Practical Reason_ in 1788, _Religion
within the Boundaries of Mere Reason_ in 1793, and _Metaphysics of
Morals_ in 1798. For Kant, the fundamental goal of morality is not the
realization of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, under
some interpretation of that formula, but the realization of human
autonomy governed by pure reason in the form of the "categorical
imperative." Kant's ideal of autonomy is nothing less than the
greatest possible freedom of each human being to set his or her own
ends compatible with the equal freedom of every other human being to
do the same. As Kant put it in lectures to his own students, freedom
"not restrained under certain rules . . . is the most terrible thing
there could ever be," but the condition "under which alone the
greatest use of freedom is possible, and under which it can be
self-consistent" is the "essential end of humankind" and the "inner
worth of the world." Kant's work immediately drew the attention of
both critics and supporters. While some argued that Kant's categorical
imperative was an "empty formalism," that he left no room for
happiness in his morality, that he could not explain responsibility
for evil, and that he allowed no room for moral feeling in morally
worthy motivation, others have found inspiration in his underlying
idea that maximal but equal freedom is the "inner worth of the world."
This book examines the response to Kant by other significant moral
philosophers from Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel to through T.H. Green,
Josiah Royce, and Friedrich Nietzsche, to John Rawls, Onora O'Neill,
Christine Korsgaard, and Derek Parfit, with many stops along the way.
The book is not a history of Kant scholarship, but an examination of
Kant's impact on other major moral philosophers from his time to our
own. While it attempts to do justice to the arguments of every
philosopher discussed, the book argues that the most profound
responses to Kant have been precisely those that have developed in
their own way Kant's ideal of freedom as the inner worth of the world.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780198906865
Publisert
2024
Utgiver
Vendor
OUP Oxford
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter