Métaphysique des moeurs 1: fondation, introduction

by Immanuel Kant

Genres: Philosophy

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Immanuel Kant was an 18th-century philosopher from Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He's regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe & of the late Enlightenment. His most important work is The Critique of Pure Reason, an investigation of reason itself. It encompasses an attack on traditional metaphysics & epistemology, & highlights his own contribution to these areas. Other main works of his maturity are The Critique of Practical Reason, which is about ethics, & The Critique of Judgment, about esthetics & teleology.

Pursuing metaphysics involves asking questions about the ultimate nature of reality. Kant suggested that metaphysics can be reformed thru epistemology. He suggested that by understanding the sources & limits of human knowledge we can ask fruitful metaphysical questions. He asked if an object can be known to have certain properties prior to the experience of that object. He concluded that all objects that the mind can think about must conform to its manner of thought. Therefore if the mind can think only in terms of causality–which he concluded that it does–then we can know prior to experiencing them that all objects we experience must either be a cause or an effect. However, it follows from this that it's possible that there are objects of such a nature that the mind cannot think of them, & so the principle of causality, for instance, cannot be applied outside experience: hence we cannot know, for example, whether the world always existed or if it had a cause. So the grand questions of speculative metaphysics are off limits, but the sciences are firmly grounded in laws of the mind. Kant believed himself to be creating a compromise between the empiricists & the rationalists. The empiricists believed that knowledge is acquired thru experience alone, but the rationalists maintained that such knowledge is open to Cartesian doubt and that reason alone provides us with knowledge. Kant argues, however, that using reason without applying it to experience will only lead to illusions, while experience will be purely subjective without first being subsumed under pure reason. Kant’s thought was very influential in Germany during his lifetime, moving philosophy beyond the debate between the rationalists & empiricists. The philosophers Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Schopenhauer saw themselves as correcting and expanding Kant's system, thus bringing about various forms of German Idealism. Kant continues to be a major influence on philosophy to this day, influencing both Analytic and Continental philosophy.

Reviews

[Yannis Ramouche · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ce texte se veut comme fondateurs de la métaphysique et de la philosophie de manière plus générale. Cependant la complexité et l'abstraction élevée des raisonnements théoriques de Kant peuvent être un frein à la réelle conpréhension des sujets dont il développe les essences. Par exemple, il propose une distinction entre l'impératif catégorique et l'impératif hypothétique, suggérant que les actions motivées par l'altruisme ou la spontanéité relèvent de l'impératif catégorique, tandis que celles guidées par des objectifs personnels s'alignent sur l'impératif hypothétique. Cette distinction sert à évaluer les actions humaines. De plus, Kant discute des concepts de raison, liberté, et volonté pour explorer les causes de nos actions​​. La diversité des thèmes développés, bien qu'essentiel à l'acuité de la réflexion peuvent, parfois perdre le lecteur. C'est un ouvrage qui demande un réel investissement.

L'ouvrage aborde également les différences entre les lois morales et les lois physiques, en mettant en évidence le rôle de la raison pure dans la formation des lois morales. Il différencie entre les devoirs découlant de la loi juridique, qui sont des devoirs extérieurs, et ceux de la législation morale, qui englobent aussi des devoirs intérieurs. Kant souligne l'importance de la liberté comme un concept pur de la raison et discute des impératifs catégoriques et techniques liés à cette liberté​​.

En somme, la "Métaphysique des mœurs" de Kant est une lecture ardue, mais fondamentale pour comprendre sa philosophie morale et ses implications pratiques.