What do you think?
Rate this book
UNDERSTANDING IMMANUEL KANT: The Smart Student's Guide to Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals
This book is fourth in a series of books devoted to helping students understand some of the great works in ethics, social and political philosophy. It has been said that Kant's Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals "is the single most important work in modern moral philosophy" (Henry Allison). It is also one of the most difficult books to comprehend, especially for beginning philosophy students. Understanding Immanuel Kant makes Kant accessible to students while at the same time showing why his writings have had such a powerful influence on philosophical ethics. Professor Houlgate's book is not a scholarly monograph on Kant, nor is it a bare-bones outline of Kant's writings. Instead, the book gives the reader an interpretation of Kant in ordinary language, explaining the technical words Kant uses ("analytic," "synthetic," "categorical imperative," "autonomy of the will") and using examples of moral problems drawn from everyday life. The book also shows how Kantian ethics differs from the theories of the other great philosophers represented in the series (Plato, Locke and Mill). Each chapter concludes with questions for thought and discussion and within these questions students will find many topics that can be pursued in term papers.
- GenresPhilosophy
121 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 17, 2018
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 2, 2018
Target audience: People with a minimal philosophical background who want to understand Kant’s way of thinking.
About the author: Laurence Houlgate is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at California Polytechnic State University, California, where he taught philosophy for 38 years. He received MA and PhD degrees philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has seven other books written in philosophy besides this one. He also has a dedicated Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurenc...
Structure of the book: The book has 78 pages (I read it on Kindle), divided into a Preface, nine chapters, a Glossary and References. The chapters have subdivisions, which in turn have sub-subdivisions.
Overview: I remember, when I was student at the faculty of Philosophy, the moment I came into contact with Kant. If philosophy was like boxing, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger (and many other of others) would be at “heavy weight” category. You must have a serious background in philosophy in order to understand certain philosophers and their philosophical systems. I wasn’t the brightest in my class either, but that is a different story.
Anyway, Kant remained for me a mystery, and for a long time I thought/expected an opportunity to resume study of certain philosophers in order to understand them a little. And one opportunity came with this book. By combining a very good structure, contemporary examples and quotes from Kant himself, the author managed to narrow the gap between Kant and people with less philosophical background. I, at least, came to understand many of Kant’s points of interest – which mainly revolve around morality – and his approach to solve the philosophical problems.
I wish I could say that this book can be read by anyone. Unfortunately, this is not the case. This is not a book you read like a Sandra Brown novel or one of Paulo Coelho’s. No; you must have a minimal philosophical training or, why not, a native philosophical sense. Even though the author managed to “translate” Kant, that does not mean the end result can be “digested” by anyone. There were many times when I had to read two or three times in order to understand what the author/Kant wanted to transmit. Moreover, I especially appreciated the fact that at the beginning of the book the author defines his objectives and sets the target audience. This helped me adjust my expectations and understand the position from which I have to read and review the book.
Quote: What is most important about Kant’s methodology is that it strictly adheres to the fundamental rules of logic.
Strong points: The strongest point of the book is the organization; how the author managed to “fragment” Kant’s philosophy and display it to the readers.
Weak points: Let’s say that there is a weak point, but not in the current book, but in Kant himself. Since my last contact with Kant I read many things, from various domains. And I think that the readers must first and foremost understand that Kant lived a deeply religious society. Although he was a critic of church hierarchy, his philosophy was inevitably a reflection of the “bubble” he lived in. If Kant had any idea about evolution, his philosophy would have been much different. Now, when I understand Kant, I must confess that I am a little disappointed by how he approached things; his debates regarding morality reminded me of his contemporaries who tried to explain simple astronomical phenomena – such as comets – through complex theories only to preserve the validity of astrology (considered for hundreds of years the mother of sciences).
About the author: Laurence Houlgate is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at California Polytechnic State University, California, where he taught philosophy for 38 years. He received MA and PhD degrees philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has seven other books written in philosophy besides this one. He also has a dedicated Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurenc...
Structure of the book: The book has 78 pages (I read it on Kindle), divided into a Preface, nine chapters, a Glossary and References. The chapters have subdivisions, which in turn have sub-subdivisions.
Overview: I remember, when I was student at the faculty of Philosophy, the moment I came into contact with Kant. If philosophy was like boxing, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger (and many other of others) would be at “heavy weight” category. You must have a serious background in philosophy in order to understand certain philosophers and their philosophical systems. I wasn’t the brightest in my class either, but that is a different story.
Anyway, Kant remained for me a mystery, and for a long time I thought/expected an opportunity to resume study of certain philosophers in order to understand them a little. And one opportunity came with this book. By combining a very good structure, contemporary examples and quotes from Kant himself, the author managed to narrow the gap between Kant and people with less philosophical background. I, at least, came to understand many of Kant’s points of interest – which mainly revolve around morality – and his approach to solve the philosophical problems.
I wish I could say that this book can be read by anyone. Unfortunately, this is not the case. This is not a book you read like a Sandra Brown novel or one of Paulo Coelho’s. No; you must have a minimal philosophical training or, why not, a native philosophical sense. Even though the author managed to “translate” Kant, that does not mean the end result can be “digested” by anyone. There were many times when I had to read two or three times in order to understand what the author/Kant wanted to transmit. Moreover, I especially appreciated the fact that at the beginning of the book the author defines his objectives and sets the target audience. This helped me adjust my expectations and understand the position from which I have to read and review the book.
Quote: What is most important about Kant’s methodology is that it strictly adheres to the fundamental rules of logic.
Strong points: The strongest point of the book is the organization; how the author managed to “fragment” Kant’s philosophy and display it to the readers.
Weak points: Let’s say that there is a weak point, but not in the current book, but in Kant himself. Since my last contact with Kant I read many things, from various domains. And I think that the readers must first and foremost understand that Kant lived a deeply religious society. Although he was a critic of church hierarchy, his philosophy was inevitably a reflection of the “bubble” he lived in. If Kant had any idea about evolution, his philosophy would have been much different. Now, when I understand Kant, I must confess that I am a little disappointed by how he approached things; his debates regarding morality reminded me of his contemporaries who tried to explain simple astronomical phenomena – such as comets – through complex theories only to preserve the validity of astrology (considered for hundreds of years the mother of sciences).
October 23, 2019
I found this treatise to be very helpful in interpreting the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The author provides examples that elucidate the particular thought being expressed by the philosopher. I found it much more helpful actually than his book Understanding David Hume.
July 5, 2024
Esclarecedor
Kant es un filósofo árido y sus postulados son difíciles de entender de primera lectura. Este libro permite entender su lógica y su construcción conceptual de una forma muy clara.
Kant es un filósofo árido y sus postulados son difíciles de entender de primera lectura. Este libro permite entender su lógica y su construcción conceptual de una forma muy clara.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews