Schleiermacher: Lectures on Philosophical Ethics

This is the first English translation of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s mature ethical theory. Situated between the better-known positions of Kant and Hegel, Schleiermacher’s ethics represents an under-explored and singular option within the rich and creative tradition of German idealism. Schleiermacher is known to English readers primarily as a theologian and hermeneuticist, but many German scholars have argued that it is in fact his philosophical work in ethics that constitutes his most outstanding intellectual achievement. The lectures, which were not published in his lifetime, are thought to span the years 1812–1817 and address such topics as ethics as a descriptive science, ethics as a study of the action of reason on nature, and doctrines of goods, virtue, and duties. This volume presents them in an accessible new translation by Louise Adey Huish, together with an introduction by Robert Louden that sets them in context and assesses their achievement.

• The first English translation of these texts • Schleiermacher is increasingly recognized as an important and distinctive figure in German idealism • Likely to appeal to theologians as well as historians of philosophy

Ethics 1812/13: Introduction and doctrine of goods; Ethics 1812/13: Doctrine of virtue and the doctrine of duties; Introduction, final version (probably 1816/17); Doctrine of goods, final version (probably 1816/17); Doctrine of duties, final version (probably 1814/17).

\'… this new translation is of much interest and is to be welcomed.\' – Philosophical Writings