Description
Book SynopsisHenry E. Allison presents a comprehensive commentary on Kant''s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (1785). It differs from most recent commentaries in paying special attention to the structure of the work, the historical context in which it was written, and the views to which Kant was responding. Allison argues that, despite its relative brevity, the Groundwork is the single most important work in modern moral philosophy and that its significance lies mainly in two closely related factors. The first is that it is here that Kant first articulates his revolutionary principle of the autonomy of the will, that is, the paradoxical thesis that moral requirements (duties) are self-imposed and that it is only in virtue of this that they can be unconditionally binding. The second is that for Kant all other moral theories are united by the assumption that the ground of moral requirements must be located in some object of the will (the good) rather than the will itself, which Kant terms het
Trade Review[Allison's] commentary is the best ever written on the Groundwork: comprehensive, historical, original, argumentatively clear and sharp-witted, critical, very well informed about the ongoing research, stimulating, patient, and even rather close to the text ... a masterpiece. It sets a very high standard for any future work on the Groundwork and it will be hard to surpass. * Dieter Schönecker, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
Table of ContentsPART ONE: PRELIMINARIES; PART TWO: GMS 1; PART THREE: GMS 2; PART FOUR: GMS 3
