Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
Kant has adopted in this work the method which he thinks most suitable, proceeding analytically from common knowledge to the determination of its ultimate principle, and again descending synthetically from the examination of this principle and its sources to the common knowledge in which we find it employed. The division will, therefore, be as follows: First Section. Transition from the common rational knowledge of morality to the philosophical. Second Section. Transition from popular moral philosophy to the metaphysic of morals. Third Section. Final step from the metaphysic of morals to the critique of the pure practical reason.Please Note:This book has been reformatted to be easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher.The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year.Both versions are text searchable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Read this book more than once
This short compendium is noteworthy in its pith. Kant can say an awful lot in a short book. To get the full value of this read, be sure to take plenty of notes and re read it in a few months when you have mulled the book over, perhaps talking to friends about it.

There is one essential concept here and of course that is morals. How do we come by them and how do we distinguish them. In contemporary America, the most strident and vocal "moralists" will explain that it takes the acceptance of a personal God. Kant makes us look more closely at this concept.

Essentially he distinguishes between a moral that has "ends". We do the right thing, perhaps even the noblest thing because of various ends. Those may include the good graces of others who admire your morality or the desire to avoid the shame of acting in an immoral fashion for two examples.
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Book Description
The great German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kantbelieved that reason is the most fundamental human faculty. Applied tothe quest for knowledge it creates a world of space and time in whichall events are causally connected with each other. In the sphere ofethics reason demands respect for all persons. It enables us to enjoybeauty and to appreciate the magnificence of nature's creatures. Hisinfluence on subsequent thought has been monumental. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A great alternative to Strathern
If you are looking for a thoughtful and honest summary of the more important aspects of Aquinas' contribution to the history of philosophy, this is the best audio book I have yet found.Unlike the glib and grossly naive attempts at dealing with Aquinas such as Strathern's cheesy "Aquinas in 90 Minutes", this is actually written by a scholar devoted to understanding Aquinas.The treatment of his "five proofs for the existence of God" is precise and accurate. In fact, if you listen closely to them it will save you from thinking that the flaccid objections of people like Bertrand Russel had anything to do with what Aquinas was communicating in these proofs. Of course, if you are looking for Aquinas' theology, it is not here addressed.But then again, the title of the series is not "Giants of Theology."Overall, this is the best bang for your buck in Aquinas on audio.

what better way is there to learn and drive
The way I look at these tapes as the best way of reading philosophy while you are driving. Please keep your eyes on the road while you are driving. These series are great. I believe they are not intended to be comprehensive and they could not be in two hours but they give you %60 biography %40 philosophy. Some of them even have accent as they though they were immigrants from original contries to US, Kant speakes with German/English accent. It is fun, entertaining, illuminating. Much better than talk shows. Please this is not a substitute for a real book so judge accordingly.

Great introduction to Hume
This brief introduction to Hume is exceptional.I went from this tape to Hume's "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" and "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals".I don't think it would have been such an easy transition without learning how Hume fits into Western philosophical history and what problems concerned him.It startled me to discover that Hume's major point is that inductive thinking (thinking about "matters of fact" ) is irrational:forming general laws about the world has its basis in custom and experience and not by the sort of reasoning used in math and logic ("relations of ideas" in Hume's lexicon).

Hume's political, historical, and ethical ideas are also interesting and I was surprised to learn how much Hume's ideas on the separation of powers in government had influenced James Madison.

Pretty bad summary of Augustine.
The material is mostly biographical. It is also boring. Remember the kid in the school play who tries to do an accent and can't? The person doing the voice of Augustine is like that. Heston, as usual, is stiff as aspanker's paddle.

I note the other review is about Kant not Augustine.

Great Audio Cassettes
This is a very good overview of Kant's thought that can be listened to while driving. Does not cover epistomology well. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
These are such moral qualities as, when a man does not possess them, he is not bound to acquire them. They are: the moral feeling, conscience, love of one's neighbour, and respect for ourselves (self-esteem). There is no obligation to have these, since they are subjective conditions of susceptibility for the notion of duty, not objective conditions of morality. ... Read more

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AUDIO CLASSICS SERIES: THE GIANTS OF PHILOSOPHY IMMANUEL KANT. TWO CD SET. VOLUME 1 (66:34) VOLUME 2 (71:14) ... Read more

Book Description
This is the most up-to-date, brief and accessible introduction to Kant's ethics available.It approaches the moral theory via the political philosophy, thus allowing the reader to appreciate why Kant argued that the legal structure for any civil society must have a moral basis. This approach also explains why Kant thought that our basic moral norms should serve as laws of conduct for everyone. The volume also includes a detailed commentary on Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant's most widely studied work of moral philosophy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great introduction to Kant's ethics
The problem with Kant's political theory is that it is not found in one work. His ethics is spread out in Critique of Pure Reason, Groundworks of the Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of Practical Reason and many more. Taken the fact that Kant's language (even in German) is anything but easy to understand and that most students never move beyond the "Groundworks of the Metaphysics of Morals" Sullivan's introduction is a gold mine! It's easy to read, explains the concepts and the development of Kant's thought and points you to the relevant further readings if needed. ... Read more

Book Description
This is the most complete English edition of Kant's correspondence that has ever been compiled. The letters are concerned with philosophical and scientific topics but many also treat personal, historical, and cultural matters. On one level the letters chart Kant's philosophical development. On another level they expose quirks and foibles, and reveal a good deal about Kant's friendships and philosophical battles with some of the prominent thinkers of the time: Herder, Hamann, Mendelssohn, and Fichte. ... Read more

Book Description
This comprehensive, lucid, and systematic commentary on Kant's practical (or moral) philosophy is sure to become a standard reference work.Kant is arguably the most important moral philosopher of the modern period, yet, prior to this detailed study, there have been no attempts to treat all of his work in this area in a single volume.Using as nontechnical a language as possible, the author offers a detailed, authoritative account of Kant's moral philosophy, including his ethical theory, his philosophy of history, his political philosophy, his philosophy of religion, and his philosophy of education.He also demonstrates the historical, Kantian origins of such important notions as "autonomy," "respect for others," "rights," and "duties." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

My favorite intro to Kant's ethical theory
There are so many books written about Kant that one could almost emend the statement, "Of the making of books, there is no end" to "Of the making of books on Kant, there is no end."Kant is not merely studied, he is studied in enormous depth and with a passion and meticulousness reserved for few philosophers in history.When I was working on my Ph.D. in philosophy, even though I had read dozens of books on Kant, and was planning on spending half of my doctoral thesis on aspects of his moral thought, I would never have dreamed, in academic parlance, of describing myself as a Kant "specialist."I remained hesitant to even acknowledge myself as "competent" in Kant's ethics.

Of all the books I read on Kant's ethics, I found this one to be the best at providing an overview of Kant's moral thought and how it related to his work as a whole.Sullivan resists the widespread tendency to subdivide Kant.There are Kant scholars who expend all their efforts on one aspect of Kant's philosophy, with little effort to explain the connections with the rest of his work or to show how the two interrelate and, in fact, require one another.Moreover, even scholars working with Kant's moral theory oftentimes focus on one or two or perhaps three texts to the exclusion of the rest of his work, to the point of ignoring completely what Kant has to say about ethics in some of his works less directly concerned with moral philosophy.For instance, it is impossible to understand Kant's views about the demands of the moral law if one does not also understand his thinking about immortality.A larger number of Kant scholars have attempted to understand his ethical thought with no reference to his religious philosophy, but this isn't understanding Kant so much as preparing a fully secularized version of Kant (in fact, Kant is pretty secular even after brining all his religious beliefs to bear, but that is a separate issue).

Sullivan is marvelous at taking a particular issue in Kant, and then discussing it across a variety of texts, sometimes texts that even specialists ignore.His work is primarily integrative and synthetic, although there is also a strong analytical strain.If I were to teach a course on Kant's ethics, this is the book I would use as a secondary source.If I were taking a course on Kant's ethics, this is the book I would rely on most, apart from Kant's own writings.Advanced students and scholars will argue with many aspects of Sullivan's exposition, but no book on Kant enjoys universal approbation.But I question whether anyone studying Kant's work for the first time or trying to study his moral thought as a whole will find a more helpful book than this.It is to be recommended for its breadth, its comprehensiveness, and its clarity. ... Read more

Book Description
The renowned 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant made a number of highly original discoveries about the mindits ability to comprehend self and world and the semantics it uses to achieve awareness.The author here shows that even with the intense research taking place this century, Kant's discoveries never have been superseded nor, in fact, even fully assimilated into current thinking. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An interesting discussion of a neglected topic
Brook takes up an interesting comparison of Kant's transcendentalphilosophy with the current discoveries of cognitive science. ... Read more

Book Description
This is a major new study of Kant's ethics that will transform the way students 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. He 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. In addition, he 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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Ethnocentrism is still alive in Kantland
I read this book as a student who had read nearly everything Kant had written to try to undestand why exactly Kant was such a dogmatic reactionary and an unabashed white supremacist.Wood's book, more than any other Kant book I have read seems little more than Kantian apologetics.Wood is (as Kant was) dismissive rather than engaging to Kant's critiques and in general is arrogant and snobbish.There is little evidence that Wood has considered anything more than a carricature of opposition to Kant's philosophy.

I don't think his emphasis on the 2nd formulation is anything groundbreaking since Kant scholars have been harping on it forever.What I find interesting (and the one reason you should look into the book) is the weight Wood places on Kant's ethnocentric anthropology and history.I think Wood is right to do this, but he seems to be attached to a colonial view of culture as a set of beliefs that get tacked onto a universal rationalism and that some sort of civilizing project is requried to make savages moral (since Enlightenment is spread through teaching, and Europeans have already gone through the Enlightenment process).He never fully advocates this view, but it's certainly hinted at.Moreover, besides a brief brush off in the introduction, Wood mentions nothing of the role that race plays in his anthropology.In a book supposedly about how Kant thought all human beings should be treated equally, Wood reviews works in which Kant gives advice on how to beat African slaves most effectively, but mentions NOTHING about how these passages should be read.This is intellectually dishonest and misleading about the meaning of Kant's philosophy, since that philosophy is compatible (in Kant's mind) with enslaving entire races of people.

This book is a great proof that Kantians are serious in including only "rational" people (read as goal-pursuing, individualistic Cartesian dualists) in the moral community, at the exclusion of really anbody but adult Europeans.It's interesting on a purely historical basis, but Wood's book provides a good reason to read one of the numerous more tenable accounts of ethics that have been produced since Kant's day.

If youre into Kant....
Well obviously if youre into Kant you have to buy this book. Allen Wood (Itook two courses with him last year) is perhaps The Kant Scholar alivetoday (him and Paul Guyer). Hes a really interesting guy to talk to aswell: quite a radical, Marxist I think, and hes got a deep and I mean DEEPcommitment to egalitarianism. This said his book which I bought last yearwas very interesting. Basically Wood tries to paint Kants ethical thoughtmore attractively than most of us have usually seen it as. Some things Iliked about the book were that he really proved his point about anoveremphasis on the Formula of Universal Law, and his contention thatKant's ethical thought really is deeply rooted in his somewhat pessimisticrealistic view of human nature. I think however that Wood often dismissescriticism or alternative viewpoints far too quickly and unconvincingly.This would be I think the main detraction in his work. Also the tone of thebook at times is somewhat arrogant. Buy the book though. Very interestingreading, a bit dry at times, but in general a must read for someoneinterested in Kant. ... Read more

Book Description
Two hundred years after his death, Kant remains one of the most important modern philosophers. The Prolegomena is the ideal introduction to Kant's unique account of the nature human knowledge, according to which we actively shape the world as we know it. This new edition of Kant's own summary of his philosophy is designed specially for students. Guenter Zoeller assumes no prior knowledge of the Prolegomenaand provides an extensive and comprehensive introduction which explores Kant's life, the origin and reception of the Prolegomena, the organization of the work, its principal arguments, and its philosophical significance. This edition also includes detailed notes to aid student understanding, as well as a chronology, a glossary and an annotated bibliography. ... Read more

Book Description
The period from Kant to Hegel is one of the most intense and rigorous in modern philosophy.The central problem at the heart of it was the development of a new standard of theoretical reflection and of the principle of rationality itself. The essays in this volume consider both the development of Kant's system of transcendental idealism in the three Critiques, the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science, and the Opus Postumum, as well as the reception and transformation of that idealism in the work of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. ... Read more

Book Description
This major study of Kant provides a detailed examination of the development and function of the doctrine of transcendental illusion in his theoretical philosophy.The author argues that we cannot understand Kant unless we take seriously his claim that the mind inevitably acts in accordance with ideas and principles that are "illusory."Taking this claim seriously, we can make much better sense of Kant's arguments and reach a deeper understanding of the role he allots human reason in science.Download Description
This major study of Kant provides a detailed examination of the development and function of the doctrine of transcendental illusion in his theoretical philosophy. The author shows that a theory of 'illusion' plays a central role in Kant's arguments about metaphysical speculation and scientific theory. Indeed, she argues that we cannot understand Kant unless we take seriously his claim that the mind inevitably acts in accordance with ideas and principles that are 'illusory'. Taking this claim seriously, we can make much better sense of Kant's arguments and reach a deeper understanding of the role he allots human reason in science. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Original And Persuasive Kantian Interpretation
It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of Michelle Grier's book.It could be said that it constitutes the most important insight into Kant's Critique of Pure Reason since it was published.It seems to have been recognized as such by contemporary scholars.One of the most prominent, Henry Allison, in his extensively revised book, Kant's Transcendental Idealism, owes, according to its author, not just new ideas about but an entirely new and different understanding of Kant's philosophy.An Amazon search of citations of Prof. Grier's book shows that prominent Kant scholars have taken note of her work.Her thesis, in its usual description, sounds tame.She argues from the Kantian text that what Kant calls illusion is and was meant by him to provide the fundamental understanding of what human reason is: illusion is not a deplorable mistake or sad limitation, but the enticement toward which reason must strive, giving it direction as well as energy.She shows in detail how this interpretation makes specific sense of the puzzles that have plagued or mislead scholars to date.Kant's work, one should not forget, is titled "The Critique of Pure Reason", and so a clarification, especially one that is on the one hand historically so recent but nevertheless on the other hand absolutely convincing and solidly right, is highly extraordinary.Her telling us what Kant was driving at when no one before her saw it makes her book a wonder glittering brightly among the many good commentaries on Kant's thought. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent introduction to Kant's philosophy
Both Professor Höffe and the translator deserve kudos for this work. Most other introductions to Kant that I have seen are either too superficial, or they retain too much of Kant's heavy writing style (which tends totranslate poorly into English), in order to be really useful. By contrast,Professor Höffe's work summarizes everything important in Kant's philosophyin a way that is both insightful and easy to read.

The organization ofProfessor Höffe's book is very helpful to a proper understanding of Kant'sphilosophy. This book discusses Kant's life work organized according to thethree famous questions that Kant posed, i.e., what can I know? what ought Ito do? what may I hope?. This organization retains Kant's original didacticpurpose, and helps the reader understand how the conclusions of Kant'smoral and religious philosophy are directly connected with his criticalanalysis of reason itself.

Professor Höffe discusses, with a remarkablethoroughness for a book that is less than 300 pages long, the problems ofKant's philosophy and its relevance for our modern world. This is handledin a superb and unbiased manner. No one person can be expected to providesolutions for every philosophical problem facing humanity, and the authordiscusses those few areas in which Kant's solutions rested, withoutquestion, on inadequate foundations; on the other hand, Professor Höffedefuses the commonly made assertion that non-Euclidean geometry and quantummechanics should have "undermined" Kant's philosophy, and showsthat the reasoning behind this assertion is, in effect, inadmissible.

The writing style of this book is another reason for buying it. Thisbook is completely free of scholastic obscurantism. There are noyawn-inducing pile-ups of abstract terms derived from Latin or Greek.Difficult and complex problems are never explained in Ciceronian periods.Single-clause sentences are the rule rather than the exception. I assumethat the German original must have been written in this way, but it mustthen also be said that the translator, Marshall Farrier, has succeededwhere few people have, i.e., in having translated a German work aboutphilosophy into clear and natural English.

This is an excellentintroduction to Kant's philosophy. I know of no better in the Englishlanguage. ... Read more