Kant’s Ethical Thought

This is a major new study of Kant’s ethics that will transform the way students and scholars approach the subject in future. Allen Wood argues that Kant’s ethical vision is grounded in the idea of the dignity of the rational nature of every human being. Undergoing both natural competitiveness and social antagonism the human species, according to Kant, develops the rational capacity to struggle against its impulses towards a human community in which the ends of all are to harmonize and coincide. The distinctive features of the book are twofold. First, it focuses for the first time on the central role played in Kant’s ethical theory by the value of rational nature as an end itself. Second, it shows the importance of Kant’s systematic theory of human nature and history, and its implications for the structure, formulation, and application of Kant’s moral principles. This comprehensive study will be of critical importance to students of moral philosophy, the history of ideas, political theory, and religious studies.

• Kant is widely studied so books on him always do well • Allen Wood is one of the preeminent Kant scholars and has an international reputation especially as one of the co-editors of the Cambridge Kant edition

Preface; Abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. Metaphysical Foundations: 1. Common rational moral cognition; 2. Rational will and imperatives; 3. The formula of universal law; 4. The formula of humanity as end in itself; 5. The formula of autonomy and the realm of ends; Part II. Anthropological Applications: 6. The study of human nature; 7. The history of human nature; 8. Human inclinations and affections; 9. The historical vocation of morality; Conclusion; Notes; Index.

‘A remarkably broad and detailed panorama of Kant’s overall approach to ethics … a profound understanding of the Kantian corpus … the most comprehensive and authoritative study of Kant’s ethics that I know of.’

– Justin Oakley, Times Literary Supplement