Immanuel Kant: Ethics

by

Lara Denis

• LAST REVIEWED: 10 November 2022
• LAST MODIFIED: 30 September 2013
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396577-0225

Introduction

The ethical theory of Immanuel Kant (b. 1724–d. 1804) exerted a powerful influence on the subsequent history of philosophy and continues to be a dominant approach to ethics, rivaling consequentialism and virtue ethics. Kant’s ethical thought continues to be studied in itself, as a part of his critical system of philosophy, in its historical context, and in relation to particular practical questions. Kant’s writings and lectures display the influence of the Stoics, Rousseau, Crusius, Wolff, Hutcheson, Hume, and others; Fichte, Hegel, Nietzsche, Bradley, Greene, Habermas, and Rawls are among the many philosophers whose moral philosophies can be read (in part) as responses to Kant. Salient foundational features of Kant’s ethics include: its a priori method, its conception of the will as autonomous, its categorical imperative, its theory of freedom, and its account of moral motivation. Kant maintained that foundational moral principles must be a priori, not based on observation or experience. Kant takes the moral law to be legislated by the will to itself. Unlike holy beings, human beings experience morality as a constraint upon our wills. For us, the moral law is a categorical imperative. All ethical duties are ultimately grounded in this supreme moral principle. If we are bound to obey the moral law, we must be capable of doing so; Kant holds that, even assuming causal determinism in the phenomenal world, morality reveals our (noumenal) freedom to us. Kant attributes moral worth only to action done from duty (i.e., from respect for the law), not from inclination. Significant aspects of Kant’s fully developed ethical theory include its rich theory of virtue and the virtues, its taxonomy of duties (which include duties to oneself as well as to others), its distinctive conceptions of the highest good and human evil, and its connections with Kant’s philosophies of history, religion, and human nature. Many of Kant’s own discussions of particular duties, virtues, and vices are controversial. For example, Kant appears to condemn all lies as violations of a duty to oneself. This entry focuses on Kant’s ethics rather than Kantian ethics more broadly. Despite that, it includes a number of pieces that apply, extend, or revise Kant’s ethics in some ways, as well as interpretations of Kant’s ethics that some commentators may object stray too far from Kant’s own stated views. Kant’s political philosophy is discussed only peripherally here, save for the section on the Doctrine of Right of the Metaphysics of Morals.

General Overviews

Readers who wish to understand Kant’s ethics within the context of his philosophy as a whole will find Guyer 2006 an illuminating introduction. Several chapters are devoted to Kant’s moral and political philosophy, as well as to aspects of Kant’s philosophy of religion, history, and nature that bear on his ethics. The book is accessible enough for advanced undergraduates and other readers new to Kant. Other selections suitable for those new to Kant are Johnson 2012, Schneewind 1992, and Uleman 2010. Uleman 2010 is the most comprehensive and detailed, and written with advanced undergraduates in mind. Like Guyer 2006, Uleman 2010 can serve as a textbook. Johnson 2012 is available online and periodically updated. It provides an overview that focuses on the foundational doctrines of the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, though it is not limited to them. Schneewind 1992 is particularly informative with respect to Kant’s influences and intellectual context and development. The remaining four selections are highly influential books. Paton 1947 is especially worth reading on the categorical imperative and its formulations. O'Neill 1975 is especially important when it comes to topics of maxim formulation and the contradiction tests of the first formulation of the categorical imperative. Allison 1990 is particularly valuable for the discussion of freedom. Wood 1999 is the most wide ranging and the most interested in drawing on Kant’s work in practical anthropology.

• Allison, Henry. Kant’s Theory of Freedom. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

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  Highly influential treatment of Kant’s moral theory, treating topics ranging from freedom, reason, and will, to virtue, character, and evil.

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• Guyer, Paul. Kant. New York: Routledge, 2006.

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  Accessible enough for undergraduates, but sufficiently distinctive in its interpretations as to be of interest to more advanced readers. Brings Kant’s philosophies of nature, history, and religion to bear on his ethics; discusses Kant’s philosophy of right in addition to his theory of virtue. Overview of Kant’s entire philosophical system.

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• Johnson, Robert. “Kant’s Moral Philosophy.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edited by Edward N. Zalta. 2012.

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  A brief, clear, and accessible introduction to Kant’s ethics, focused on Kant’s foundational positions on the nature of moral philosophy, the categorical imperative and its formulations, the good will and moral motivation, and autonomy. Includes bibliography and links to other Internet resources, including but not limited to related Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries. Updated every few years.

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• O'Neill, Onora. Acting on Principle: An Essay in Kantian Ethics. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975.

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  A highly influential work on Kant’s ethics. Much attention is focused on the formula of universal law, its contradiction tests, and related issues regarding ends, maxims, and intentions. Other topics include Kant’s taxonomy of duties, moral worth, supererogation, and conflicts of duty. Concise and systematic.

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• Paton, H. J. The Categorical Imperative: A Study in Kant’s Moral Philosophy. London: Hutchinson’s University Library, 1947.

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  Focuses on such foundational topics as the critical method, the good will, duty, reverence for the law, the intelligible world, and freedom—and especially the categorical imperative. Its influence on English-language Kant scholarship would be difficult to overstate.

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• Schneewind, J. B. “Autonomy, Obligation, and Virtue: An Overview of Kant’s Moral Philosophy.” In The Cambridge Companion to Kant. Edited by Paul Guyer, 309–341. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

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  A philosophically and historically informative introduction. Sets Kant’s moral philosophy in the contexts of Kant’s broader philosophy and its development. Also situates Kant’s moral philosophy in relation to significant influences as Wolff, Crusius, Rousseau, and Hutcheson.

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• Uleman, Jennifer K. An Introduction to Kant’s Moral Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

  DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511801082Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Geared toward advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and above. A sophisticated introduction to Kant’s moral theory. Main topics include practical reason; will, choice, and desire; freedom and its place in nature; the categorical imperative; and the goodness of a good will.

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• Wood, Allen W. Kant’s Ethical Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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  Five chapters concern the “metaphysical foundations” of Kant’s ethics; the focus here falls on the categorical imperative, its formulations, and their applications. The focus of the other four main chapters is the relation of morality to human nature. Topics here include practical anthropology, history, inclinations and passions, and radical evil.

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Reference Works

With so much written by Kant, a lexicon can be a valuable research aid. Eisler 1994 is a venerable Kant-lexicon; it is in German. Some entries are just a few lines long; others, such as those referring to terms for key concepts in Kant’s philosophy, stretch for many pages. The other two resources are in English. Johnson 2012 provides an overview of Kant’s ethics. It is updated periodically and has a helpful bibliography and set of links to other Internet resources. Kant in the Classroom is a resource specific to Kant’s lectures—in all areas, not only ethics. This is an extremely valuable aid, since Kant gave so many lectures and there are so many sets of student notes. It is periodically updated. It is a rich resource for the scholar (or aspiring scholar). All these reference works can be accessed via the web; Kant in the Classroom and Johnson 2012 are only accessible this way.

• Eisler, Rudolf. Kant-Lexicon: Nachschlagewerk zu Kants sämtlichen Schriften, Briefen und handschriftlichm Nachlaß. Hildesheim, Germany: Olms, 1994.

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  A–Z guide of terms Kant uses with explanations of them and their relations to other terms, often quoted from Kant’s writings, with citations to the relevant passages. Reprint of 1930 edition, published in Berlin by Akademie Verlag. This work is also available online. In German.

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• Johnson, Robert. “Kant’s Moral Philosophy.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edited by Edward N. Zalta. 2012.

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  Clear, accessible introduction to Kant’s ethics. Sections devoted to each main formulation of the categorical imperative. Also includes discussions of Kant’s view of the nature of moral philosophy, the good will, virtue and vice, moral motivation, and autonomy. Bibliography, links to other Internet resources. Updated every few years.

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• Nargon, Steve. Kant in the Classroom.

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  Provides copious information about the lectures on moral philosophy, as well as the student notes on those lectures: the time period of the lectures from which the notes dates, which texts were used in those lectures, where the student notes are located now, whether they have been published and translated, and so on. Bibliography, glossary, and many useful links.

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Anthologies

The anthology of broadest scope within Kant’s ethics is Hill 2009. It covers a wide range of topics. Although many of the essays are on challenging topics, they are, on the whole, fairly accessible. Somewhat narrower in scope, though still relatively broad, is Ameriks and Höffe 2009. Segments of this anthology focus on Kant’s influences, the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, the Critique of Practical Reason, and Kant’s legal philosophy. What’s especially valuable about this collection is that all chapters are English translations of essays previously published only in German. Timmermann 2009, Reath and Timmermann 2010, and Denis 2010 are anthologies devoted to specific works by Kant; all are pitched to readers familiar with the text and secondary literature. Timmermann 2009 contains eleven essays on the Groundwork. Reath and Timmermann 2010 contain nine essays on the Critique of Practical Reason. Denis 2010 contains twelve essays on the Metaphysics of Morals. Although there are other commentaries and collections dedicated to these texts, these three reflect the most recent, expert-level work. They are suited to graduate students and above.

• Ameriks, Karl, and Otfried Höffe, eds. Kant’s Moral and Legal Philosophy. Translated by Nicholas Walker. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

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  Fourteen essays in English by significant German Kant scholars, including Dieter Henrich, Wolfgang Kersting, Bernd Ludwig, and Annemarie Pieper. Topics cover the influence of Hutcheson, Wolf, and Baumgarten on Kant’s early moral thought, Kant’s conceptions of practical reason, maxims, and moral philosophy, and several topics specific to Kant’s political philosophy.

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• Denis, Lara, ed. Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals: A Critical Guide. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

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  Diverse set of authors, topics, and approaches. Includes chapters on duties to oneself, duties to others, duties regarding animals, moral feelings, justice, virtue, reason, will, and desire. Contributors include Allen Wood, Paul Guyer, Stephen Engstrom, and Otfried Höffe.

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• Hill, Thomas E., Jr., ed. The Blackwell Guide to Kant’s Ethics. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

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  Topics range from such basic themes as the good will and formulations of the categorical imperative to aspects of Kant’s theories of justice and virtue. Essays accessible and interesting to a broad range of readers. Contributors include Arthur Ripstein, Stephen Darwall, Thomas Pogge, Marcia Baron, and Arnulf Zweig.

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• Reath, Andrews, and Jens Timmermann, eds. Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason: A Critical Guide. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

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  Essays tackle important, difficult questions raised by Kant’s second Critique. Topics include the fact of reason, incentives of pure practical reason, and the primacy of practical reason. Contributors include Heiner Klemme, Pauline Kleingeld, and Marcus Willaschek.

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• Timmermann, Jens, ed. Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A Critical Guide. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

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  Chapters address questions raised by Kant’s most widely read ethical work. Topics include happiness, acting from duty, dignity and the formula of humanity, and freedom. Contributors include J. B. Schneewind, Paul Guyer, and Manfred Kuehn.

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Bibliographies

Although many works on Kant’s ethics contain bibliographies helpful as a guide to further reading, the most comprehensive, regularly updated bibliography is Schroth 2012. This bibliography includes articles, books, and book chapters published on Kant’s moral philosophy. Most entries do not include annotations; there are more for recent entries than older ones. But the annotations which are provided, and which are often from the authors’ article abstracts or books’ tables of contents, are quite helpful. Most recent listings and annotations are in English; most older ones are in German.

• Schroth, Jörg, ed. Lituratur zu Kants Ethik. 2012.

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  The PDF is over one hundred pages in length, contains more than 1,200 entries, and spans from 1786 to the present. Displays listings chronologically or in reverse chronology. Recent listings are quite comprehensive; earlier ones more selective. (Same material may be viewed alphabetically.)

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Kant’s Ethical Works

As a wide ranging yet systematic philosopher, there are few works by Kant with no relevance to his ethics. The core works in moral philosophy, however, are Kant 1963a, Kant 1963b, and Kant 1969 (all cited under German). Also highly relevant are notes on Kant 1997 (cited under English Translations).

Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals

Much scholarship on Kant’s ethics operates by attending closely to individual works—to considering the aims and structures of these works, and to analyzing the arguments and positions advanced therein. There are many commentaries on and guides to Kant’s major works in ethics. Guyer 2007 and Sedgwick 2008 should be helpful for undergraduates encountering the Groundwork (cited under English Translations) for the first time. Both are philosophically sophisticated, but aimed at students relatively new to philosophy in general and Kant in particular. Sedgwick 2008 is more of a passage-by-passage commentary than is Guyer 2007. Two important single-author commentaries aimed at scholars are Allison 2011 and Timmermann 2009. Each has much to say for it; each is distinctive. Allison reads a bit more like a normal book at times and critically discusses much contemporary secondary literature as well as being historically rich. The slimmer Timmermann 2007 is more of a passage-by-passage commentary. Timmermann 2007 is notable in part for its interpretation of the relation among the formula of universal law and the other formulations of the categorical imperative. Paton 2008 is not a commentary, strictly speaking. But much of this highly influential work focuses on central topics of the Groundwork, most notably the categorical imperative in its various formulations. Of the many collections concerning the Groundwork, two that are especially noteworthy are Höffe 1989 and Timmermann 2009. Höffe 1989 is more of a genuine cooperative commentary; it includes a mix of pieces in German, English, and French. Timmermann 2009 is a more topic-driven collection, with an international selection of contributors providing essays in English. Several pieces in the Höffe 1989 have been influential.

• Allison, Henry E. Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals: A Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

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  A philosophically rich commentary which pays significant consideration to Kant’s philosophical predecessors and contemporaries and draws on a wide range of Kant’s works, lectures, and handwritten notes. Places significant interpretive focus on the structure of the Groundwork and on Kant’s conception of the autonomy of the will.

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• Guyer, Paul. Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals: A Reader’s Guide. London: Continuum, 2007.

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  Provides the reader with an introductory overview, then guides the reader through the preface and each of the Groundwork’s three sections. Some discussion of important secondary literature. Includes study questions. Suitable as a textbook.

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• Höffe, Otfried, ed. Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten: Ein Koorpertiver Kommentar. Frankfurt: Vittorio Klostermann, 1989.

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  Essays by eighteen authors, including Rüdiger Bittner, Karl Ameriks, Thomas Pogge, Onora O’Neill, and Henry Allison. Essays in English, German, and French. Topics include the enterprise of the Groundwork, the good will, respect for the law, hypothetical and categorical imperatives, homo phenomenon and homo noumenon, and autonomy.

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• Paton, H. J. The Categorical Imperative: A Study in Kant’s Moral Philosophy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.

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  Has done much to shape the Anglo-American understanding of Kant’s ethics in general and the Groundwork in particular. Although the categorical imperative is the focus, the book contains discussions of duty, the good will, reverence for the law, practical reason, the intelligible world, freedom, and more. First published in 1947.

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• Sedgwick, Sally. Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: An Introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

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  A commentary designed with the undergraduate in mind. Leads the reader through the text nearly paragraph by paragraph. Extremely helpful explanations of Kant’s views about freedom and his responses to Hume, Leibniz, and others. Explicit argument reconstructions. Suitable as a textbook.

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• Timmermann, Jens. Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A Commentary. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

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  This is a detailed, close commentary. It includes six appendices on such important topics as Kant’s project of a metaphysics of morals and Schiller’s criticism of Kant on acting from duty. It also includes a glossary, with entries on such topics as autonomy, happiness, maxims, and reverence.

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• Timmermann, Jens, ed. Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A Critical Guide. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

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  Less attention to the formula of universal law than one might expect. Much attention to the argument from freedom in the third section of the Groundwork. Other topics which receive attention include Kant’s conception of character, the role of examples in ethics, and Kant’s critique of “spurious principles of morality.”

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Critique of Practical Reason

Beck 1960 is a classic, highly influential single-author commentary on the Critique of Practical Reason (Kant 1996, cited under English Translations) which provides a comprehensive treatment of the text. Höffe 2002 is a comprehensive, cooperative commentary. Chapters are keyed to various sections of the text, so that collectively they completely cover the text. Chapters do not always group sections of text chronologically; this occasional deviation allows for better coverage of particular topics, such as the fact of reason. Reath and Timmermann 2010 is more topic-driven than Beck 1960 and less exhaustive than Höffe 2002. It includes a diverse set of expert, international contributors; all contributions are in English.

• Beck, Lewis White. A Commentary on Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960.

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  A classic commentary which continues to influence philosophical interpretation and debate of the second Critique, particularly within the English-speaking world.

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• Höffe, Otfried. Immanuel Kant: Kritik der praktischen Vernunft. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2002.

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  A cooperative commentary in twelve chapters. German and English, with most chapters in German. Contributors include Karl Ameriks, Eckart Föster, Allen Wood, Reinhard Brandt, and G. Felicitas Munzel.

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• Reath, Andrews, and Jens Timmermann, eds. Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason: A Critical Guide. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

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  Nine essays by an international group of specialists, addressing such topics as the fact of reason, the incentives of pure practical reason, and the antinomy of practical reason. The anthology begins with a chapter on the origin and purpose of the second Critique.

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Metaphysics of Morals

Although the two main parts of the Metaphysics of Morals (the Rechtslehre and Tugendlehre, cited under English Translations) are often studied separately, some commentaries cover the work as a whole. Gregor 1963 is the essential English-language commentary. Timmons 2002 and Denis 2010 are less exhaustive and more topic-driven than Gregor 1963. Each features the perspectives of a diverse set of specialists. Several pieces in Timmons have been influential already. Denis 2010 includes important recent work through which the reader can grasp the current state of relevant debates.

• Denis, Lara, ed. Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals: A Critical Guide. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

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  Topics include Kant’s theories of possession and punishment, his conception of the innate right of freedom, the primacy of perfect duties to oneself, moral feelings, and duties regarding animals. The collection begins with a chapter on the genesis of the Metaphysics of Morals and ends with a chapter on the Tugendlehre as normative ethics.

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• Gregor, Mary J. Laws of Freedom: A Study of Kant’s Method of Applying the Categorical Imperative in Kant’s Metaphysik der Sitten. Oxford: Blackwell, 1963.

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  The classic English-language study. Includes discussion of Kant’s project of a metaphysics of morals and the divisions of moral philosophy, as well as detailed discussions of specific duties as articulated and argued for in the Metaphysics of Morals.

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• Timmons, Mark, ed. Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals: Interpretive Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

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  Several of these chapters have been influential: Stephen Engstrom’s chapter on virtue and Paul Guyer’s on Kant’s deduction of the principles of right. Several chapters consider the relation between Kant’s doctrines of right and virtue, which receive roughly equal attention within the collection.

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Lectures on Ethics

Although it is not a philosophical commentary, an invaluable, comprehensive, and regularly updated resource for those interested in Kant’s lectures—on ethics or anything else—is Kant in the Classroom. It provides information on the notes, whether and where they are published and translated, current location, and provenance. Information, including table of contents, of the textbooks Kant used in his moral philosophy courses. Site tells how many times courses were taught, when, and how the courses were titled or announced. Schmucker 1961 provides background about Kant’s philosophical influences and development that is helpful for understanding the lectures. Kant in the Classroom is in English; Schmucker 1961 is in German. See Kant 1997, cited under English Translations.

• Nargon, Steve. Kant in the Classroom.

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  This site, which covers the full range of Kant’s classroom work, contains sections specific to Kant’s lectures on moral philosophy. Bibliography, glossary, and useful links.

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• Schmucker, Josef. Die Ursprünge der Ethik Kants in seinen vorkritischen Schriften und Reflektionen. Meisenheim, West Germany: Verlag Anton Hain KG, 1961.

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  Especially helpful for understanding Kant’s lectures on ethics is chapter 5 (pp. 278–394), which explores relations between Kant’s ethical thought and that of Alexander Baumgarten, whose textbooks Kant used as a basis for his lectures on ethics. In German.

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Freedom

Freedom is fundamental to Kant’s practical philosophy. Transcendental freedom is a crucial presupposition of his ethics; autonomy the heart of it. Wood 1984 analyzes Kant’s attempt to reconcile noumenal freedom with phenomenal determinacy, and its implications for Kant’s ethics. Although not written as an introduction to the topic, it is an excellent starting point. Allison 1990 is essential reading: a rigorous examination of Kant’s theory of freedom, from spontaneity through autocracy; most subsequent work on the topic refers to it. McCarty 2009 covers much of the same ground (though in less textual depth) as Allison 1990 and engages critically with it while arguing for alternative positions. Most saliently, McCarty argues for metaphysical reading of the distinction Kant makes between appearances and things in themselves, whereas Allison conceives of Kant’s distinction as between two standpoints. Frierson 2003 grapples with a deep, pervasive problem about Kant’s theory of freedom with respect to human moral agents: a tension between Kant’s commitment in his theoretical philosophy and foundational moral theory to the position that we are transcendentally free and his commitment in his moral anthropology that we can influence one another empirically in morally significant ways. Korsgaard 1996 reconstructs Kant’s argument that the moral law is the law of a free will, and that we must regard ourselves as free and thus bound by the moral law; she uses a distinction between theoretical and practical standpoints in order to defend Kant from charges of ontological dualism and incoherence regarding moral imputability. Guyer 2000 argues that freedom, as an end, plays a more fundamental role in Kant’s moral theory than has traditionally been acknowledged—a role at odds with common understandings of Kant as a deontologist. Schneewind 1998 traces the development of the concept of autonomy that reaches realization in Kant’s moral theory. O’Neill 2003 draws sharp contrasts between Kant’s conception of autonomy and those prevalent in much contemporary moral and political philosophy (e.g., on bioethics, consent, paternalism). It is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand Kant’s distinctive conception of autonomy.

• Allison, Henry. Kant’s Theory of Freedom. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

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  Highly influential treatment of Kant’s moral theory. Important discussion of the Third Antinomy, transcendental and practical freedom, the empirical and the intelligible character, practical and transcendental freedom, the “reciprocity thesis,” the Wille-Willkür distinction, the fact of reason, respect, radical evil, the “incorporation thesis,” and virtue and holiness.

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• Frierson, Patrick R. Freedom and Anthropology in Kant’s Moral Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

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  Frierson attempts to reconcile Kant’s claims about our transcendental freedom, a fundamental presupposition of Kant’s moral philosophy, with his claims about empirical influences on human moral development and agency, a presupposition of Kant’s view that anthropology is morally relevant.

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• Guyer, Paul. “Kant’s Morality of Law and Morality of Freedom.” In Kant on Freedom, Law, and Happiness. By Paul Guyer, 129–171. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

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  Argues that Kant regards freedom as a fundamental, necessary end, recognition of which is an essential starting point for moral reasoning (rather than a consequence of it). Originally published in Kant and Critique: New Essays in Honor of W. H. Werkmeister, edited by R. M. Dancy (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic, 1993), pp. 43–89.

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• Korsgaard, Christine M. “Morality as Freedom.” In Creating the Kingdom of Ends. By Christine M. Korsgaard, 159–187. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

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  Argues that the key to defending Kant against some important and intuitively compelling objections to his account of freedom is distinguishing properly between practical and theoretical reason and their respective deliberative and explanatory standpoints. Originally published in Kant’s Practical Philosophy Reconsidered, edited by Yirmiyahu Yovel (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic, 1989), pp. 23–48.

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• McCarty, Richard. Kant’s Theory of Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

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  Presents Kant’s theory of action as combining metaphysical freedom and psychological determinism. Original and illuminating discussion of Kant on maxims, radical evil, virtue, and more at the intersection of Kant’s theories of freedom, action, and ethics. Much critical attention to competing views.

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• O’Neill, Onora. “Autonomy: The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 77 (Suppl.) (2003): 1–21.

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  Provides an account of Kant’s notion of autonomy as concerns principles of action (as opposed to agents or ways of choosing), showing how it is important and distinctive. Illuminates relations among Kantian autonomy, rationality, and morality. Distinguishes Kant’s notion of autonomy and from those of J. S. Mill and Gerald Dworkin.

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• Schneewind, Jerome B. The Invention of Autonomy: A History of Modern Moral Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

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  Focused on the 17th and 18th centuries, this book traces the development of the idea of autonomy from the roots of the natural law tradition through Kant’s moral philosophy. Schneewind allows his readers to appreciate the significance of Kant’s contribution to moral philosophy and its debts to its predecessors.

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• Wood, Allen W. “Kant’s Compatibilism.” In Self and Nature in Kant’s Philosophy. By Allen W. Wood, 73–101. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984.

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  Situates Kant’s view of freedom of the will in relation to compatibilism and incompatibilism by articulating Kant’s unique “incompatibilist compatibilism.” Discussion of transcendental and practical freedom (negative and positive), autonomy and heteronomy, intelligible and empirical causality, weakness of will and radical evil.

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Practical Reason

Ethics is the domain of practical reason; much of Kant’s foundational work in ethics concerns Kant’s own theory of practical reason. Hill 1992 is an accessible introduction to Kant’s conception of practical reason, and Kant’s grounding of morality in pure practical reason. It is well suited to undergraduates both because of its style and because of its focus on the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, with which students are likely to be most familiar. Reath 2006 also provides a concise, relatively accessible Groundwork-based treatment of Kant’s grounding of morality—especially the formula of universal law—in pure practical reason. The most accessible of the pieces focused on the second Critique is Gardner 2006. Gardner 2006 elucidates much that is distinctive and important about Kant’s theory. This piece delves into aspects of Kant’s theory as he presents it in the Critique of Practical Reason. This piece discusses Kant’s thesis regarding the primacy of practical reason and the theological postulates. Other aspects of Kant’s theory of practical reason, as articulated in the second Critique, are explored closely in Pieper 2009; the focus here is the concept of the object of pure practical reason, the categories, and the relations among the moral law, practical judgment, and action. Beck 1960 provides a comprehensive analysis of Kant’s theory of practical reason through a commentary on the second Critique. Its influence in the field makes it essential reading. By far the most original and challenging work on Kant’s theory of practical reason is Engstrom 2009. Like Hill 1992 and Reath 2006, Engstrom 2009 explores Kant’s grounding of the categorical imperative in pure practical reason. Key to Engstrom 2009, however, is his interpretation of Kant’s conception of practical reason as a capacity for knowledge of the good. Engstrom 2009 ranges widely over Kant’s texts; it draws heavily on the Groundwork and second Critique, but also on the introduction to the Metaphysics of Morals, the Critique of Judgment, and much else.

• Beck, Lewis White. A Commentary on Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960.

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  This influential commentary on the second Critique is essential reading for those who wish to understand Kant’s theory of practical reason. Includes discussions of Kant’s conception of practical reason; reason, will, wish, and choice; practical concepts and judgment.

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• Engstrom, Stephen. The Form of Practical Knowledge: A Study of the Categorical Imperative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.

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  Cognitivist conceptions of practical reason have a long history, reaching back to Plato. Engstrom develops Kant’s version of this approach in relation to Kant’s conceptions of will, choice, and wish; thought, judgment, and validity; morality and the categorical imperative.

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• Gardner, Sebastian. “The Primacy of Practical Reason.” In A Companion to Kant. Edited by Graham Bird, 259–273. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.

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  Distinguishes between two ways to construe the primacy of practical reason. Explores the primacy of practical reason both (narrowly) as a principle set forth in the Dialectic of the Critique of Practical Reason and (broadly) as a distinctive feature of Kant’s critical philosophy.

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• Hill, Thomas E., Jr. “Kant’s Theory of Practical Reason.” In Dignity and Practical Reason in Kant’s Moral Theory. By Thomas E. Hill Jr., 123–146. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

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  Presents main features of Kant’s theory of practical reason, drawing primarily on the Groundwork. Discusses hypothetical imperatives, negative freedom, autonomy, and moral principles. Reprint of the original version published in The Monist 72 (1989): 363–383.

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• Pieper, Annemarie. “‘On the Concept of an Object of Pure Practical Reason’: Chapter 2 of the Analytic of Practical Reason.” In Kant’s Moral and Legal Philosophy. Edited by Karl Ameriks and Otfried Höffe, and translated by Nicholas Walker, 179–197. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

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  Analyzes fourteen pages in which Kant defines the object of pure practical reason, explicates the categories through which pure practical reason determines its object. Originally published as “Zweites Hauptstück (57–71).” In Immanuel Kant: Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, edited by Otfried Höffe (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2002), pp. 115–133.

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• Reath, Andrews. “The Categorical Imperative and Kant’s Conception of Practical Rationality.” In Agency and Autonomy in Kant’s Moral Theory. By Andrews Reath, 67–91. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

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  Reath provides an account of Kant’s conception of practical reason and of the categorical imperative as the principle that most fully expresses its requirements. He is ultimately concerned to show how Kant derives morality from reason. Reprint of the original version published in The Monist 72.3 (1989): 384–410.

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The Categorical Imperative

Commentators have been interested in many aspects of the categorical imperative. Among them, Kant’s identification of the rationally self-legislated categorical imperative as the supreme moral principle, how he argues for it, how we are bound by it, how the various formulations of it relate to one another, and how it grounds duties. Wood 2006 provides an accessible article-length account of Kant’s conception of the categorical imperative and relations among its formulations. An illuminating feature of this account is its discussion of Kant’s argument that only the categorical imperative, not the principles of his predecessors, can be the supreme moral principle. A more challenging article-length piece is Guyer 2000, which considers the relations among the formulae of the categorical imperative with special attention to what they contribute to Kant’s account of the real possibility of the categorical imperative. O’Neill 1989 principally concerns the question of what equivalence between the formulas of universal law and the formula of humanity might amount to. Kerstein 2002 provides a book-long examination of Kant’s criteria of a supreme moral principle and whether the formula of universal law or other candidates meet them. Timmermann 2007, which is a sophisticated, passage-by-passage commentary on the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, offers much careful, textually grounded argument regarding Kant’s conception of the categorical imperative, its justification, and the relations among the formulae. Paton 2008 is essential reading: it provides a systematic, highly influential explication of the various formulae and relations among them, situating the interpretation of the categorical imperative within a comprehensive account of Kant’s foundational moral theory. Engstrom 2009 presents a “practical-cognitivist” account of the categorical imperative within an account of practical reason as a capacity of knowledge of the good; while the book culminates in two chapters dedicated to interpretation and application of the categorical imperative, previous chapters provide accounts of practical reason, judgment, and the idea of a categorical imperative.

• Engstrom, Stephen. The Form of Practical Knowledge: A Study of the Categorical Imperative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.

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  Presents Kant as conceiving of practical reason as a capacity for knowledge of the good, and morality as consisting in knowledge of intrinsic goodness. Engstrom presents categorical imperative as a principle of “self-agreement.” His focus is the formula of universal law and the law of nature variant.

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• Guyer, Paul. “The Possibility of the Categorical Imperative.” In Kant on Freedom, Law, and Happiness. By Paul Guyer, 172–206. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

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  Explores the progression and relations among the formulations of the categorical imperative, with attention to what each formulation contributes to Kant’s account of how a categorical imperative is possible. Reprint of the original version published in Philosophical Review 104 (1995): 353–385.

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• Kerstein, Samuel. Kant’s Search for the Supreme Principle of Morality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

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  Argues that Kant has eight criteria for the supreme principle of morality. Shows that these criteria are not met by several candidates for the supreme moral principles. Explores whether the categorical imperative—particularly the formula of universal law—meets these criteria.

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• O’Neill, Onora. “Universal Laws and Ends-in-Themselves.” In Constructions of Reason: Explorations of Kant’s Practical Philosophy. By Onora O’Neill, 126–144. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

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  Considers how we might best understand Kant’s claims that formulas of universal law and humanity are equivalent, and what each formulation contributes. Reprint of the original version published in The Monist 72.3 (1989): 341–361.

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• Paton, H. J. The Categorical Imperative: A Study in Kant’s Moral Philosophy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.

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  A seminal treatment of Kant’s conception of the categorical imperative, its formulations, its justification. Paton’s analyses of each formulation, their applications and implications, and the relations among the formulations continue to be influential. First published in 1946.

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• Timmermann, Jens. Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A Commentary. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

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  Presents the formula of universal law as the “general form” of the categorical imperative and other formulas as variants of it which containing analogies drawing on earlier philosophical ideals (such as the Stoics’ notion of living in accordance with nature). Variants bring the categorical imperative “closer to feeling.”

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• Wood, Allen W. “The Supreme Principle of Morality.” In The Cambridge Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy. Edited by Paul Guyer, 342–380. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

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  Presents Kant’s view of what the supreme principle of morality is supposed to do and be like and why the categorical imperative is it. Explains the relations among the formulations of the categorical imperative and the specific contributions of each. Discusses Kant’s critiques of previous moral systems.

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Moral Motivation

Kant’s claim that action from duty alone has moral worth has been a lightning rod for critical attention. Herman 1993 is an influential attempt to defend Kant’s claims about the special moral worth of acting from duty by providing an account according to which the motive of duty can operate in the background as well as in the foreground. This approach has been influential. Baron 1995 takes up and modifies this approach, bring her version of it to bear in explicit defense against criticisms of Kant’s ethics as alienating because of its account of action from duty. The most scholarly pieces on moral motivation are Timmermann 2009, Engstrom 2010, and Guyer 2010. Timmermann 2009 focuses on the Groundwork treatment of the distinction between acting from duty and acting from inclination; his is one of these three that bears most directly on Kant’s claims about the special moral worth of action from duty. Engstrom 2010 provides an in-depth analysis of the Critique of Practical Reason and discussion of the incentives of pure practical reason, and the contrast there between respect for the law and incentives of self-love and self-conceit. Engstrom explains that the moral law’s positive effect on feeling is indirect: the elevating feelings of respect for the law and esteem for ourselves as its legislators are preceded by the humiliating feeling of the moral law’s striking down of our self-conceit. Guyer 2010 addresses Kant’s moral psychology more comprehensively than the others: first, it discusses respect for the law in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, the second Critique, and the Doctrine of Virtue; second, it discusses also moral feeling, conscience, and self-esteem, and their relation to respect for the law and various pathological feelings. All three of these approaches are interpretively, philosophically, and ethically interesting.

• Baron, Marcia. “Is Acting from Duty Morally Repugnant?” In Kantian Ethics Almost without Apology. By Marcia Baron, 117–145. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995.

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  Interprets the motive of neither as merely a back-up motive nor as operative only episodically, but rather as a pervasive motive that regulates how one lives. Revised and reprinted from the original version published as “The Alleged Moral Repugnance of Acting from Duty,” Journal of Philosophy 81.4 (1984): 197–200.

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• Engstrom, Stephen. “The Triebfeder of Pure Practical Reason.” In Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason: A Critical Guide. Edited by Andrews Reath and Jens Timmermann, 90–118. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

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  Incisive examination of Kant’s second Critique account of how the moral law moves us to action in the absence of any antecedent feelings attuned to the moral law.

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• Guyer, Paul. “Moral Feelings in the Metaphysics of Morals.” In Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals: A Critical Guide. Edited by Lara Denis, 130–151. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

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  Traces the development of Kant’s account of moral feelings and motivation through the Groundwork, second Critique, and the Doctrine of Virtue, with emphasis on the last. Develops a multistage model of the phenomenal etiology of morally worthy action, in which a variety of feelings, as well as conscience, are implicated.

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• Herman, Barbara. “On the Value of Acting from the Motive of Duty.” In The Practice of Moral Judgment. By Barbara Herman, 1–22. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.

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  Argues that the motive of duty can function not only as an agent’s immediate or primary motive for action, but also as a limiting condition, which determines if and when she acts on other motives. Reprint of the original version published in Philosophical Review 90 (1981): 359–382.

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• Timmermann, Jens. “Acting from Duty: Inclination, Reason, and Moral Worth.” In Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A Critical Guide. Edited by Jens Timmermann, 45–62. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

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  Clarifies and defends Kant’s position that only action from duty is morally worthy. Argues actions from duty can satisfy inclinations (which are only indirectly with volition and action), whereas only action from duty can satisfy reason (which is directly concerned with volitions and their grounds).

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Virtue

Baxley 2010 is book-length treatment of Kant’s theory of virtue. It is attentive to a broad range of Kant’s text and to some historical and developmental considerations, while being systematic in its overall approach. Baxley’s development of Kant’s conception of autocracy in relation to his conception of autonomy is a contribution in its own right. Denis 2006 provides a brief, accessible introduction to Kant’s conception of virtue, virtues, and vices. Guyer 2000 provides a textually rich account of virtue and duties of virtue, in part by situating Kant’s conception of virtue in relation to his conceptions of a good will, moral worth, moral perfection, and merit. Engstrom 2002 analyzes Kant’s conception of virtue through Kant’s characterization of virtue as inner freedom. This piece has had a significant influence on subsequent work on Kant’s conception of virtue; it is important for scholars. Grenberg 2005 is focused on a single virtue (or virtuous meta-attitude), humility. But the book has much of interest to say about virtue and the human struggle for it. Even more than Grenberg 2005, Louden 2000 develops Kant’s theory of virtue by situating it within his theory of human nature. The perspective of Louden 2000 is valuable in part for the range of Kant’s writings and lectures on which it draws.

• Baxley, Anne Margaret. Kant’s Theory of Virtue: The Value of Autocracy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

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  An account of Kant’s theory of virtue which takes the autocracy of pure practical reason as central. Explores the relation between virtue and the good will, the moral psychology of virtue, and Kant’s conflict with Schiller regarding the nature of virtue.

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• Denis, Lara. “Kant’s Conception of Virtue.” In The Cambridge Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy. Edited by Paul Guyer, 505–537. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

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  Briefly traces the history of virtue theory prior to Kant. Focuses on explicating Kant’s theory of virtue and his account of particular virtues and vices. Considers Kant’s criticisms of his predecessors and responses to Kant’s theory of virtue.

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• Engstrom, Stephen. “The Inner Freedom of Virtue.” In Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals: Interpretive Essays. Edited by Mark Timmons, 289–315. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

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  Influential account of virtue as a strong expression of inner freedom, the capacity for moral self-constraint essential to human morality.

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• Grenberg, Jeanine. Kant and the Ethics of Humility: A Story of Dependence, Corruption, and Virtue. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

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  An account of Kantian virtue which treats humility as central. Discusses relations between humility and self-respect, and between moral and epistemic humility. Distinguishes Kantian moral humility with other conceptions of humility, and contrasts it with arrogance.

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• Guyer, Paul. “Moral Worth, Virtue, and Merit.” In Kant on Freedom, Law, and Happiness. By Paul Guyer, 289–329. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

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  Delineates different ways Kant uses the word “Tugend” or phrases including it and argues for a specific relation among them—for example, that virtue as a strong, persistent endeavor to comply with duty is a product of virtue as pure moral motivation.

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• Louden, Robert B. Kant’s Impure Ethics: From Rational Beings to Human Beings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

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  Draws on Kant’s theories of education, religion, art, anthropology, and history in order to present a rich, empirically informed account of Kantian ethics in general and his theory of virtue in particular.

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The Highest Good

Either Wood 2009 or Beiser 2006 would make a good starting point for exploring the topic. Wood 2009 is essential reading on the topic of the highest good, both because of its tremendous influence on subsequent scholarly discussion of the topic, and because it situates the topic within a broader treatment of Kant’s views about God, religion, and morality. Beiser 2006 situates Kant’s views about the highest good in relation to relevant views of Kant’s predecessors and contemporaries, as well as in the context of related positions of Kant (e.g., about belief in God). Reath 1988 distinguishes between two conceptions of the highest good and argues one should be preferred to the other; he favors the highest good as a “secular” ideal as opposed to a “theological” one. Engstrom 1992 provides a careful, compelling account of the highest good as the complete object of pure practical reason. Engstrom 1992 focuses more narrowly on the highest good itself than do Wood 2009 and Beiser 2006, and more on the argument of the second Critique than do Guyer 2000 and Reath 1988. Guyer 2000 considers and resolves problems within Kant’s ethics concerning a realization of the highest good within the natural world. Problematic claims include those suggesting that nature somehow intends our freedom, virtue, and happiness; that our moral end must include not only virtue but also happiness; and that the highest good may be realized not by each individual being maximally virtuous and therefore maximally happy, but rather by later generations benefiting from the moral efforts of their forbearers. Beiser 2006 argues against reading Kant’s conception of the highest good as a secular ideal, and suggests that it is due to misunderstandings of Kant’s conception of the highest highest good that some commentators have seen as two distinct conceptions of it, one according to which it is realized in this world and one in the next.

• Beiser, Frederick C. “Moral Faith and the Highest Good.” In The Cambridge Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy. Edited by Paul Guyer, 588–629. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

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  Presents Kant’s conception of the highest good in relation to the postulates of God and immortality, moral faith, and the primacy of practical reason. Argues that Kant’s conception of the highest good cannot, without distortion, be regarded as a secular ideal.

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• Engstrom, Stephen. “The Concept of the Highest Good in Kant’s Moral Philosophy.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 51.4 (1992): 747–780.

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  Shows how the highest good follows from the moral law as the complete object of pure practical reason. Explains why virtue is both necessary and sufficient for the goodness of happiness. Considers whether we should understand our duty to be to promote or to achieve the highest good.

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• Guyer, Paul. “Nature, Freedom, and Happiness: The Third Proposition of Kant’s Idea for a Universal History.” In Kant on Law, Freedom, and Happiness. By Paul Guyer, 372–407. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

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  Attempts to resolve apparent inconsistencies in foundational tenets of Kant’s moral philosophy and propositions in Idea concerning the realization of the highest good in nature over the course of human history.

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• Reath, Andrews. “Two Conceptions of the Highest Good in Kant.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 26 (1988): 593–619.

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  Distinguishes between “theological” and “secular” accounts of the highest good in Kant’s philosophy. Disputes proportionality between virtue and happiness as essential to Kant’s conception of the highest good. Argues in favor of the secular account and considers the role of institutions in its realization.

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• Wood, Allen W. Kant’s Moral Religion. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.

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  This seminal work in Kant’s philosophy of religion is dedicated in part to reconstructing sympathetically Kant’s account of the highest good as the complete object of pure practical reason. Defends the consistency of Kant’s moral theory inclusion of such an object with its insistence on the autonomy of the will. Originally published in 1970.

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Radical Evil

Allison 1990 is a particularly influential account of radical evil, and thus is important background. It is also helpful because the discussion of radical evil takes place within a book-long, systematic treatment of Kant’s moral theory. Allison 1990 provides illuminating and influential discussions of the conception of radical evil, its levels, and its relations to the moral disposition and will. Similar things can be said about Wood 1999. The interpretations of radical evil—its content and Kant’s argument for it—that Allison 1990 and Wood 1999 offer contrast, with Wood 1999 being more anthropological and Allison 1990 more a priori. (The whole approach of Wood 1999 is more anthropological than that of Allison 1990; this difference is not limited to their analyses of radical evil.) Wood is interested in the social (as well as the individual) aspects of how human beings can and should seek to overcome their propensity to evil. Frierson 2003 treats radical evil within his book-length exploration of tensions between a few of Kant’s key positions at the intersection of ethics and anthropology. It is a less comprehensive treatment of Kant’s ethics than Wood 1999, concerned with resolving a narrowly defined problem. Sussman 2005 is an original and interesting article-length treatment of radical evil. In addition to offering its own compelling interpretation, the piece includes ample attention to the text of Religion, with discussion of the three predispositions, the three degrees of evil, and other essential aspects of the doctrine.

• Allison, Henry. Kant’s Theory of Freedom. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

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  Radical evil is the subject of chapter 8 (pp. 146–161). Argues that while Kant’s claim about the radical evil in human nature may appear to be merely an empirical generalization, the claim must be read as a synthetic a priori one, and thus as requiring a deduction. Allison attempts to provide one.

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• Frierson, Patrick R. Freedom and Anthropology in Kant’s Moral Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

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  The book concerns a tension among Kant’s views about freedom and empirical influences on human beings. Chapter 5 (pp. 95–135) reconstructs Kant’s proof of radical evil in human nature, arguing that it involves a priori and empirical arguments. Treats radical evil as crucial to understanding a human being’s good will.

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• Sussman, David. “Perversity of the Heart.” Philosophical Review 114.2 (2005): 153–177.

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  Sussman argues that radical evil—and the active antagonism toward morality it involves—is necessary for the progression of (finite, temporal, natural) human beings toward the realization of our practical reason. Philosophically and interpretively rich; engaging for the ethicist as well as the Kant scholar.

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• Wood, Allen W. Kant’s Ethical Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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  Chapter 9 (pp. 283–320) argues that only empirical arguments can establish whether human beings have a propensity to evil. Wood gives an “anthropological reading” of the content of radical evil; he associates radical evil with our social nature, identifying ambition, a social passion, as “the root of all evil.”

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Historical Perspectives

Schneewind 1998 traces the development of the idea of autonomy which culminates in Kant’s moral philosophy. The book has great scope, but the focus on autonomy provides a through line. Kant himself is discussed only quite late in the book; but the earlier chapters provide valuable background for appreciating Kant’s contribution to moral philosophy. Irwin 2009 is the third and final volume in a major work by Irwin on the history of moral philosophy. This last volume contains reconstructions and analyses of a variety of important arguments within Kant’s ethics, relating them to arguments and problems in earlier and later moral philosophers. Kuehn 2001 is a biography that reveals a great deal about Kant’s intellectual influences and development. Among the topics covered are many that shed light on Kant’s ethical thought and its development. That is the sole topic of Ward 1972. Ward 1972 provides a supplement—or perhaps corrective—to overviews of Kant’s ethics that focus on his mature views and his most explicitly ethical works, ignoring the lectures and precritical writings. This is an accessible, brief volume that keeps its focus on Kant’s developing thought, and covers the duration of his thinking life. Schmucker 1961 and Schwaiger 2009 specifically concern Kant’s early moral thought and crucial influences upon it. Schmucker 1961 (in German) is more comprehensive than Schwaiger 2009, which focuses on the topic of obligation, and goes far more in depth. Beck 1969 and Beiser 1987 are not focused exclusively on Kant’s ethics, but set Kant in the context of German intellectual and cultural history. Beiser 1987 more than Beck 1969 gives a sense of the intellectual climate in which Kant was working, and his own influence on the debates in which he participated.

• Beck, Lewis White. Early German Philosophy: Kant and His Predecessors. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969.

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  Situates Kant’s philosophy, and the philosophy of earlier philosophers such as Albertus Magnus, Meister Eckhart, Leibniz, Wolff, Mendelssohn, and Herder within the context of German intellectual and cultural history. Considers the ways Kant’s and earlier German philosophy was shaped by dominant political, educational, and religious beliefs, practices, and institutions.

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• Beiser, Frederic C. The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987.

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  Plunges the reader into Kant’s intellectual context, life, and development, providing a sense of the philosophical debates that shaped Kant’s thought and to which he contributed. Explores relation of Kant to Spinoza, Wolff, Hamann, Jacobi, Mendelssohn, Herder, Garve, Reinhold, Fichte, Maimon, and others.

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• Irwin, Terence. The Development of Ethics: A Historical and Critical Study. Vol. 3, From Kant to Rawls. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

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  Seven chapters of rigorous analysis of Kant on reason, inclination, and desire; happiness and self-interest; the categorical imperative; autonomy; the good will; respect; duty and virtue; God and the highest good. Irwin also considers Kant’s criticisms of eudaimonism and Kant’s metaethics. Subsequent chapters consider Kant through lenses of his critics.

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• Kuehn, Manfred. Kant: A Biography. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

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  A philosophically and historically rich biography. Over four hundred pages of text, preceded by a chronology of Kant’s life and work and proceeded by over one hundred pages of notes and bibliography. Provides an illuminating account of Kant’s intellectual influences and the social and intellectual context in which he worked.

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• Schmucker, Josef. Die Ursprünge der Ethik Kants in seinen vorkritischen Schriften und Reflektionen. Meisenheim, West Germany: Verlag Anton Hain KG, 1961.

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  Exploration of Kant’s early writings in moral philosophy and the philosophical influences on the development of Kant’s ethical thought, such as Hutcheson, Crusius, Wolff, and Baumgarten, and what Kant adopted, rejected, or modified from them. No index, but a detailed, informative analytic table of contents is extremely helpful. In German.

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• Schneewind, Jerome B. The Invention of Autonomy: A History of Modern Moral Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

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  Focused on the 17th and 18th centuries, traces ideas about morality and self-governance so as to show the roots of Kant’s conception of autonomy, as well as the significance and distinctiveness of his contribution to the history of moral philosophy.

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• Schwaiger, Clemens. “The Theory of Obligation in Wollf, Baumgarten, and the Early Kant.” In Kant’s Moral and Legal Philosophy. Edited by Karl Ameriks and Otfried Höffe, and translated by Nicholas Walker, 58–73. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

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  Shows where Baumgarten’s conception of obligation departs from Wolff and which aspects most influenced Kant. Originally published as “Zur Theorie der Verbindlichkeit bei Wolff, Baumgarten und dem frühen Kant,” in La filosofia practica tra metafisica e antropologia nell’età di Wolff e Vico, edited by G. Cacciatore, et al. (Naples, Italy: Guida, 1999), pp. 323–340.

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• Ward, Keith. The Development of Kant’s View of Ethics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1972.

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  Ward illuminates the teleological aspects of Kant’s ethics, as well as the significance of his philosophy of religion to his moral philosophy. The antinomies, practical postulates, and categorical imperative are discussed at length.

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Constructivism

There is a strand of Kant interpretation, beginning with John Rawls, according to which Kantian morality is constructed through the operation of reason. Rawls 1999a is a classic, well-developed constructivist interpretation of Kant’s ethics. According to Rawls 1999a, the CI-procedure itself is not constructed, but merely makes explicit requirements implicit in everyday operations of practical reason; that the CI-procedure is based in a conception of persons as free and equal, reasonable, and rational; and that the content of morality is constructed. Rawls 1999b is presentation of Rawls’s own theory of justice as Kantian, where constructivism is taken to be central to Kant’s approach to moral philosophy. These pieces are worth reading in part because Rawls’s constructivist interpretation of Kant has been so influential, shaping the thought of many luminaries in Kantian moral and political philosophy, such as Korsgaard, O’Neill, Hill, Herman, and Reath. O’Neill 1989 analyzes Rawls’s Kantian constructivism, particularly as developed in A Theory of Justice, and considers arguments from critics alleging it does not represent a genuine alternative to realism and relativism. She does much to clarify Rawls’s approach as well as those of his critics before offering a variant of his approach. Korsgaard 1996 is a hugely influential work which presents Kantian constructivism as uniquely able to address fundamental problems of obligation, motivation, and normative authority that have plagued moral philosophy since antiquity. Many Kantians are not constructivists, and do not think Kant is best interpreted along constructivist lines. Kain 2004 argues against constructivist interpretations of Kant specifically by arguing that a proper understanding of Kant’s conception of self-legislation is antagonistic to constructivist interpretations of it. Kain develops an account of Kant’s view of self-legislation as (in part) an alternative to theological voluntarism. Many are confused about what exactly Kantian constructivism amounts to. Krasnoff 2007 attempts to clarify what constructivism is, and whether it makes sense to attach that label to Kant.

• Kain, Patrick. “Self-Legislation in Kant’s Moral Philosophy.” Archiv für Geschicthte der Philosophie 86 (2004): 257–306.

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  Kain argues that Kant’s conception of self-legislation is different from and incompatible with contemporary constructivist interpretations. A careful, scholarly argument which is illuminating with respect to the development of Kant’s own views, and as well as of interest with respect to the merits and pedigree of “Kantian” constructivism.

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• Korsgaard, Christine M. The Sources of Normativity. Edited by Onora O’Neill. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

  DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511554476Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Four chapters trace attempts to answer “the normative question” from Socrates to the present. Chapters 3 (pp. 90–130) and 4 (pp. 131–166) develop a Kantian constructivism, according to which there are (as realists claim) objective criteria for moral judgment, but (in opposition to the realist) these criteria emerge from practical reasoning itself.

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• Krasnoff, Larry. “How Kantian Is Constructivism?” In German Idealism. Edited by Klaus Brinkmann, 257–283. London: Routledge, 2007.

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  The answer: “not very.” Krasnoff untangles the various notions identified with “constructivism.” He then considers on which if any of those construals of constructivism Kant’s practical philosophy is appropriately described as “constructivist.” Reprint of the original version published in Kant-Studien 90 (1999): 385–409.

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• O’Neill, Onora. “Constructivism in Ethics.” In Constructions of Reason: Explorations of Kant’s Practical Philosophy. By Onora O’Neill, 206–218. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

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  Considers Rawls’s constructivism and objections to it. Advocates an alternative form of constructivism that relies on abstraction, not on idealization. Reprint of the original version published in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 89 (1988–1989): 1–17.

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• Rawls, John. “Kantian Constructivism in Moral Theory.” In John Rawls: Collected Papers. Edited by Samuel Freeman, 303–358. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999a.

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  Elucidates the Kantian roots of “justice as fairness.” Fundamental principles of justice emerge from reasonable agreement among free and equal persons in an idealized choice situation. Revised and reprinted from the original version published in Journal of Philosophy 77 (1980): 515–572.

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• Rawls, John. “Themes in Kant’s Moral Philosophy.” In John Rawls: Collected Papers. Edited by Samuel Freeman, 497–528. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999b.

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  Rawls articulates what he takes to be the distinctively constructivist aspects of Kant’s moral thought. Originally published in Kant’s Transcendental Deductions: The “Three Critiques” and the “Opus Postumum,” edited by Eckart Förster (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989), pp. 81–113.

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Applications

Kant’s ethics is not only of scholarly interest, but of practical interest as well. This can be seen in a vast array of works that discuss Kant’s own views about concrete moral matters, or that draw out practical implications of his views. The best of these works illuminate foundational aspects of Kant’s moral theory while at the same time showing what the theory amounts to in practice. Altman 2011 is the most extensive single-author application of Kant’s moral philosophy, addressing a wide range of topics. It is accessible enough for undergraduates. Wood 2008 covers fewer topics, but the book as a whole provides a fuller and deeper treatment of Kant’s ethical theory. Early chapters discuss foundational issues in Kant’s moral theory. Kain 2009 provides a scholarly exploration of a crucial issue for many questions of application: the scope and basis of the moral status of a person. Implications of Kant’s theory for abortion, euthanasia, and many other bioethical issues hinge on this. Herman 1993a and Herman 1993b make vivid and vital Herman’s influential interpretation of Kant’s moral thought (and the CI-procedure) through application to particular moral issues concerning violence in one case and beneficence in another.

• Altman, Matthew C. Kant and Applied Ethics: The Uses and Limits of Kant’s Practical Philosophy. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.

  DOI: 10.1002/9781118114162Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Considers what Kant’s moral philosophy implies about a number of controversial contemporary issues, including ethical treatment of animals, the environment, universal healthcare, patient autonomy, the death penalty, same sex marriage, “mail-order” marriages, and broader issues of social justice.

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• Herman, Barbara. “Murder and Mayhem: Violence and Kantian Casuistry.” In The Practice of Moral Judgment. By Barbara Herman, 113–131. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993a.

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  Argues for a “deliberative presumptions” against generic maxims of killing persons for convenience. Illuminating discussion of violence and coercion against persons. Reprint of the original version published in The Monist 72 (1989): 411–431.

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• Herman, Barbara. “Mutual Aid and Respect for Persons.” In The Practice of Moral Judgment. By Barbara Herman, 45–72. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993b.

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  Develops a notion of “a community of mutual aid” and explores issues about the scope and stringency of the duty of aid members of that community. Reprint of the original version published in Ethics 94 (1984): 577–602.

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• Kain, Patrick. “Kant’s Defense of Human Moral Status.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 47.1 (2009): 59–102.

  DOI: 10.1353/hph.0.0083Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Does Kant regard all members of our biological species as persons, and if so, does he have any principled basis for this view? Kain provides a scholarly argument for the affirmative answer to both questions, along with critical treatment of Kantian alternatives to Kant’s own view on human moral status.

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• Wood, Allen W. Kantian Ethics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

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  Four late chapters (11–14) focus on social justice (pp. 193–205), punishment (pp. 206–223), sex (pp. 224–239), and lies (pp. 240–258). The discussion of humanity in chapter 5 (pp. 85–105), for example, discusses the moral status of the human fetus and of nonhuman animals.

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