Allen W. Wood

462 Pages·2007·7.05 MB·English

MODERN EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY
KANT'S
ETHICAL
THOUGHT
ALLEN W. WOOD
MODERN EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY
T
HIS ISA MAJOR NEW STUDY OF KANT'S ETHICS
that will transform the way students and scholars approach the
subject in future.
Allen Wood argues that Kant's ethical vision is grounded in the
idea of the dignity of the rational nature of every human being.
Undergoing both natural competitiveness and social antagonism, the
human species, according to Kant, develops the rational capacity to
struggle against its impulses toward a human community in which
the ends of all are to harmonize and coincide.
The distinctive features of the book are twofold. First, it focuses
for the first time on the central role played in Kant's ethical theory
by the value of rational nature as an end itself. Second, it shows the
importance of Kant's systematic theory of human nature and history
and its implications for the structure, formulation, and application of
Kant's moral principles.
This comprehensive study will be of critical importance to
students of moral philosophy, the history of ideas, political theory,
and religious studies.
ALLEN W.WOOD is Professor of Philosophy at Yale University.
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
www.cambridge.org
«SHSSF
Cover design by Jeffrey J. Faville
KANT'S ETHICAL THOUGHT
This is a major new study of Kant's ethics that will transform the way stu
dents and scholars approach the subject in the future.
Allen Wood argues that Kant's ethical vision is grounded in the idea of
the dignity of the rational nature of every human being. Undergoing
both natural competitiveness and social antagonism, the human species,
according to Kant, develops the rational capacity to struggle against its
impulses, toward a human community in which the ends of all are to har
monize and coincide.
The distinctive features of the book are twofold. First, it focuses for the
first time on the central role played in Kant's ethical theory by the value
of rational nature as an end in itself. Second, it shows the importance of
Kant's systematic theory of human nature and history and its implications
for the structure, formulation, and application of Kant's moral principles.
This comprehensive study will be of critical importance to students
of moral philosophy, the history of ideas, political theory, and religious
studies.
Allen W. Wood is Professor of Philosophy at Yale University.

MODERN EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY
General Editor
Robert B. Pippin, University of Chicago
Advisory Board
Gary Gutting, University of Notre Dame
Rolf-Peter Horstmann, Humboldt University, Berlin
Mark Sacks, University of Essex
This series contains a range of high-quality books on philosophers, topics,
and schools of thought prominent in the Kantian and post-Kantian Euro
pean tradition. It is nonsectarian in approach and methodology, and
includes both introductory and more specialized treatments of these
thinkers and topics. Authors are encouraged to interpret the boundaries
of the modern European tradition in a broad way and in primarily philo
sophical rather than historical terms.
Some Recent Titles:
Frederick A. Olafson: What Is a Human Being"?
Stanley Rosen: The Mask of Enlightenment: Nietzsche's Zarathustra
RobertC. Scharff: Comte after Positivism
F. C. T. Moore: Bergson: Thinking Backwards
Charles Larmore: The Morals of Modernity
Robert B. Pippin: Idealism as Modernism
Daniel W. Conway: Nietzsche's Dangerous Game
John P. McCormick: Carl Schmitt 's Critique of Liberalism
Frederick A. Olafson: Heidegger and the Ground of Ethics
Günter Zöller: Fichte's Transcendental Philosophy
Warren Breckman: Marx, the Young Hegelians, and the Origins of Radical
Social Theory
William Blattner: Heidegger's Temporal Idealism
Charles Griswold: Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment
Gary Gutting: Pragmatic Liberalism and the Critique of Modernity

KANT'S ETHICAL THOUGHT
ALLEN W. WOOD
Yale University
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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io Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia
Ruiz de Alarcön 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain
© Allen W. Wood 1999
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1999
Printed in the United States of America
7)i/)c/ac«NewBaskerville 10.25/13 pt. System QuarkXPress™ 4.0 [AG]
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Wood, Allen W.
Kant's ethical thought / Alien W. Wood.
p. cm. - (Modern European philosophy)
ISBN 0-521-64056-3 (he). - ISBN 0-521-64836-x (pbk.)
I. Kant, Immanuel, 1724—1804-Contributions in ethics. I. Title.
II. Series.
B2799.E8W59 1999
i7o'.g2-dc2i 98-32168
CIP
ISBN 0521 64056 3 hardback
ISBN 0521 64836 x paperback
To the memory of my parents
Alleen Blumberg Wood
April 18, 1906-July 28, 1986
Forrest E. Wood
July 2, 1909-February 4, 1998