Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals - Oxford Worlds Classics
Immanuel Kant (author), Christopher Bennett (translator), Joe Saunders (translator), Robert Stern (translator)
Paperback (26 Nov 2019)


Categories: Contemporary Fiction Western Philosophy: C 1600 To C 1900 Philosophy: Metaphysics & Ontology Ethics & Moral Philosophy


Publishers Synopsis

The present groundwork is nothing more than the identification and vindication of the supreme principle of morality.

In the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), Immanuel Kant makes clear his two central intentions: first, to uncover the principle that underpins morality, and second to defend its applicability to human beings. The result is one of the most significant texts in the history of ethics and a masterpiece of Enlightenment thinking.

Kant argues that moral law tells us to act only in ways that others could also act, thereby treating them as ends in themselves and not merely as means. Kant contends that despite apparent threats to our freedom from science, and to ethics from our self-interest, we can nonetheless take ourselves to be free rational agents, who as such have the motivation to act on this moral law, and thus the ability to act as moral beings.

One of the most studied works of moral philosophy, this new translation by Robert Stern, Joe Saunders, and Christopher Bennett illuminates this famous text for modern readers.


Book information

ISBN: 9780198786191
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Pub date: 26 Nov 2019
DEWEY: 170
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: xlv, 89
Weight: 114g
Height: 195mm
Width: 128mm
Spine width: 5mm