Kant's 'Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals': A Reader' Guide

Guyer, Paul

ISBN 10: 0826484530 / ISBN 13: 9780826484536

Published by Holt, Rinehart, Winston, New York, 2007

About this Item

Near fine hardcover. No dust jacket, as issued. Clean, tight, unmarked. Kant is probably the philosopher who best typifies the thought and ideals of the Enlightenment. He was influenced by the modern physics of Newton, the rationalist perfectionism of Leibniz and Wolff, the critical empiricism of Locke and Hume, and Rousseau's celebration of liberty and individualism, and his work can be seen partly as an attempt to combine and synthesize these various ideas. In moral philosophy, he developed a radical and radically new conception of the unconditional value of human autonomy, which he opposed to both theological and utilitarian conceptions of moral value. He first expounded his moral vision in the "Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals" (1785), the seminal work of modern moral philosophy in which he introduced his infamous 'categorical imperative'. Paul Guyer's Reader's Guide will help readers find their way in this brilliant but dense and sometimes baffling work.

Seller Inventory # 46735

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Kant's 'Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals': A Reader' Guide
• Publisher: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, New York
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0826484530
• ISBN 13: 9780826484536
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Weight: 12.4 ounces

About this title

Synopsis

Kant is probably the philosopher who best typifies the thought and ideals of the Enlightenment. He was influenced by the modern physics of Newton, the rationalist perfectionism of Leibniz and Wolff, the critical empiricism of Locke and Hume, and Rousseau's celebration of liberty and individualism, and his work can be seen partly as an attempt to combine and synthesize these various ideas. In moral philosophy, he developed a radical and radically new conception of the unconditional value of human autonomy, which he opposed to both theological and utilitarian conceptions of moral value. He first expounded his moral vision in the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), the seminal work of modern moral philosophy in which he introduced his infamous 'categorical imperative'. Paul Guyer's Reader's Guide will help readers find their way in this brilliant but dense and sometimes baffling work.

About the Author

Paul Guyer is the Jonathan Nelson Professor of Humanities and Philosophy at Brown University, USA. He is the author of eleven books on the philosophy of Kant, most recently Virtues of Freedom (2016) and Kant on the Rationality of Morality (2019), as well as of A History of Modern Aesthetics in three volumes (2014).