Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A Commentary

by Jens Timmermann

The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals is Kant's central contribution to moral philosophy, and has inspired controversy ever since it was first published in 1785. Kant champions the insights of 'common human understanding' against what he sees as the dangerous perversions of ethical theory. Morality is revealed to be a matter of human autonomy: Kant locates the source of the 'categorical imperative' within each and every human will. However, he also portrays everyday morality in a way that many readers find difficult to accept. The Groundwork is a short book, but its argument is dense, intricate and at times treacherous. This commentary explains Kant's arguments paragraph by paragraph, and also contains an introduction, a synopsis of the argument, six short interpretative essays on key topics of the Groundwork, and a glossary of key terms. It will be an indispensable tool for anyone wishing to study the Groundwork in detail.

Genres: Philosophy

228 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[path · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly accessible as far as commentary goes. The paragraph by paragraph explanation, cross-referencing, and commentary is very helpful for puzzling through Kant’s main arguments. One thing that I am appreciating is that Kant is full of abstruse terminology. I found it challenging to keep the terms straight, so it was gratifying to see, via the commentary, that apparently Kant had some challenges using the terms in fully consistent ways as well.

Timmermann does a particularly good job of walking through the argument in Section III on the relationship between the will, duty, autonomy, and freedom. I think that I basically got things straight but came away with a more simple understanding of freedom and autonomy as being essential to preserve in other people by treating them as ends and not merely as means to our own ends. For Kant, freedom is also connected to the way that we are open to the moral imperative coming from the will and realized as duty. Honestly, that connection gets a little convoluted for me. Also, as the author seems to confirm, the purported connection is ultimately inconclusive at showing why people recognize a duty to choose what is morally right and experience it as an imperative even if we don’t always act on it (we are imperfect beings, after all!). It is not entirely clear to me why the imperative should be coming from the realm of understanding as and not simply from a recognition that preserving human dignity and the rights of people to pursue their own ends and to secure their own happiness is not, ultimately, in our self-interest anyway.

[LaPantera 69. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who takes on the challenge of getting through Kant's academic obscurantism deserves 5 stars and eternal life. Thank you Mr. Timmermann.