Kant's Critique of Practical Reason

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Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-89685-6 - Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason: A Critical Guide Edited by Andrews Reath and Jens Timmermann Frontmatter More information

KANT’S CRITIQUE OF PRACTICAL REASON

The Critique of Practical Reason is the second of Kant’s three Critiques and his second work in moral theory after the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Its systematic account of the authority of moral principles grounded in human autonomy unfolds Kant’s considered views on morality and provides the keystone to his philosophical system. These new essays shed light on the principal arguments of the second Critique and explore their relation to Kant’s critical philosophy as a whole. They examine the genesis of the Critique, Kant’s approach to the authority of the moral law given as a ‘fact of reason’, the metaphysics of free agency, the account of respect for morality as the moral motive, and questions raised by the ‘primacy of practical reason’ and the idea of the ‘postulates of pure practical reason’. Engaging and critical, this volume will be invaluable to advanced students and scholars of Kant and to moral theorists alike.

andrews reath is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of Agency and Autonomy in Kant’s Moral Theory (2006) and the co-editor (with Barbara Herman and Christine M. Korsgaard) of Reclaiming the History of Ethics: Essays on John Rawls (Cambridge, 1997). jens timmermann is Senior Lecturer in Moral Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of Kant’s ‘Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals’: A Commentary (Cambridge, 2007) and Sittengesetz und Freiheit (2003) and the editor in German, of the Critique of Pure Reason, the Groundwork and, for the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy, the Critique of Practical Reason.

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cambridge critical guides

Titles published in this series: Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit edited by dean moyar and michael quante

Mill’s On Liberty edited by c. l. ten

Kant’s Idea for a Universal History With a Cosmopolitan Aim edited by ame´ lie oksenberg rorty and james schmidt

Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals edited by jens timmermann

Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason edited by andrews reath and jens timmermann

KANT’S Critique of Practical Reason A Critical Guide

edited by andrews reath University of California, Riverside and jens timmermann University of St Andrews

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First published 2010

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Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data A critical guide to Kant’s Critique of practical reason / edited by Andrews Reath, Jens Timmermann. p. cm. – (Cambridge critical guides) isbn 978-0-521-89685-6 (hardback) 1. Kant, Immanuel, 1724–1804. Kritik der praktischen Vernunft. 2. Practical reason. I. Reath, Andrews. II. Timmermann, Jens. III. Title. IV. Series. B2774.C75 2010 170–dc22 2009050365

isbn 978-0-521-89685-6 Hardback

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Contents

Preface page vii List of contributors viii Translations and abbreviations x

Introduction andrews reath 1 1 The origin and aim of Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason heiner f. klemme 11 2 Formal principles and the form of a law andrews reath 31 3 Moral consciousness and the ‘fact of reason’ pauline kleingeld 55 4 Reversal or retreat? Kant’s deductions of freedom and morality jens timmermann 73 5 The Triebfeder of pure practical reason stephen engstrom 90 6 Two conceptions of compatibilism in the Critical Elucidation pierre keller 119 7 The Antinomy of Practical Reason: reason, the unconditioned and the highest good eric watkins 145 8 The primacy of practical reason and the idea of a practical postulate marcus willaschek 168

vi Contents 9 The meaning of the Critique of Practical Reason for moral beings: the Doctrine of Method of Pure Practical Reason stefano bacin 197

Bibliography 216 Index 223

Preface

The idea for this project grew out of a conversation between Jens Timmermann, Steve Engstrom and Andrews Reath at a conference on Kant’s moral philosophy hosted by Peking University in May 2004.We believe that Andy suggested that there was a need for a volume of new essays on the Critique of Practical Reason, and Jens suggested that we assemble a group that would read through the Critique together before embarking on the essays. This volume is thus part of a larger project that included a working group that met several times. Jens Timmermann kindly agreed to host meetings of the group at the University of St Andrews, and we met there twice – in July 2006 to read the Critique together and in late August– early September 2007 to discuss preliminary versions of the papers. Pauline Kleingeld invited us to meet at Leiden University, and we convened there a third time in June 2008 to discuss penultimate versions of the papers. We received ﬁnancial support from several institutions along the way. We should like to thank Cambridge University Press, the University of St Andrews, the Paton Fund, the Scots Philosophical Club, the University of California at Riverside, the Philosophy Department of Leiden University and the Leiden University Fund. We should also like to thank Lucy Richmond (St Andrews) for compiling the index. ar jt

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Contributors

stefano bacin is currently Alexander von Humboldt research fellow at the Kant Research Centre at the University of Mainz (Germany). He has written on German philosophy, and his publications include a monograph on the development of Kant’s practical philosophy between the 1760s and The Metaphysics of Morals (Il senso dell’etica. Kant e la costruzione di una teoria morale, Il Mulino, 2006) and Fichte a Schulpforta (Guerini, 2003; German edition Frommann-Holzboog, 2007). stephen engstrom is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh (USA). He is the author of The Form of Practical Knowledge (Harvard University Press, 2009) and editor (with Jennifer Whiting) of Aristotle, Kant, and the Stoics (Cambridge University Press, 1996). He has also written several articles on Kant’s practical and theoretical philosophy, including the Introduction to the Hackett Publishing edition of the Critique of Practical Reason (2002). pierre keller is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside (USA). He is the author of Kant and the Demands of Self-Consciousness (Cambridge University Press, 1998) and Husserl and Heidegger on Human Experience (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and of articles on Kant and post-Kantian German philosophy. He is currently working on a book on Kant’s practical philosophy. pauline kleingeld is Professor of Philosophy at Leiden University (Netherlands). She works on Kant’s and Kantian philosophy, moral theory, political philosophy and feminism. She is the author of Fortschritt und Vernunft: Zur Geschichtsphilosophie Kants (Königshausen & Neumann, 1995), the editor of Immanuel Kant, Toward Perpetual Peace and Other Texts on Politics, Peace, and History (Yale University Press, 2006), and the author of Kant and Cosmopolitanism: The Philosophical Ideal of World Citizenship (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

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List of contributors ix heiner f. klemme is Professor of Philosophy and head of the Kant Research Centre at the University of Mainz (Germany). He has written extensively on Kant’s philosophy, the Scottish Enlightenment and issues in practical philosophy. His books include Kants Philosophie des Subjekts (Meiner, 1996), Immanuel Kant (Campus, 2004)andDavid Hume (Junius, 2007). He is co-editor of Kant-Studien and also wrote the Introduction to the 2003 Meiner edition of the Kritik der praktischen Vernunft. andrews reath is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside (USA). He has worked extensively on Kant’s moral philosophy and recently published a collection of his essays, Agency and Autonomy in Kant’s Moral Theory (Oxford University Press, 2006). He also wrote the Introduction to the Cambridge University Press edition of the Critique of Practical Reason (1997). jens timmermann is Senior Lecturer in Moral Philosophy at the University of St Andrews (UK) and author of Sittengesetz und Freiheit (de Gruyter, 2003)andKant’s ‘Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals’: ACommentary(Cambridge University Press, 2007). He has edited, in German, the Critique of Pure Reason,theGroundwork and, for the Berlin- Brandenburg Academy, the Critique of Practical Reason.Cambridge University Press is publishing his facing-page edition of Kant’s Groundwork in 2010. eric watkins is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego (USA). He has written on Kant’s theoretical philosophy, including his pre-critical period and philosophy of science, as well as on Kant’s practical philosophy. He is the author of Kant and the Metaphysics of Causality (Cambridge University Press, 2005). He has edited Kant and the Sciences (Oxford University Press, 2001) and edited and translated Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason: Background Source Materials (Cambridge University Press, 2009). marcus willaschek is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt (Germany). He has written widely on Kant’s theoretical and practical philosophy, including several articles on the Critique of Practical Reason. His books include Praktische Vernunft. Handlungstheorie und Moralbegründung bei Kant (Metzler, 1992) and Der mentale Zugang zur Welt: Realismus, Skeptizismus und Intentionalität (Klostermann, 2003). He is editor (with Georg Mohr and Jürgen Stolzenberg) of the Kant-Lexikon (de Gruyter, forthcoming).

Translations and abbreviations

Citations of Kant’s works refer to the volume and page number in the Academy Edition of Immanuel Kant, Gesammelte Schriften (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter and predecessors, 1900–). In some cases, the citation includes the line number in the Academy Edition. References to the Critique of Pure Reason, which cite the page numbers of the A and B editions, are the exception. Quotations use or have been adapted from the following translations:

Anth Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, in Immanuel Kant, Anthropology, History and Education, ed. Robert B. Louden and Günter Zöller (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006). CpV Critique of Practical Reason, trans. Mary J. Gregor, in Immanuel Kant, Practical Philosophy (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996). CrV Critique of Pure Reason, trans. Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998). CU Critique of Judgment, trans. Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000). G Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. Mary J. Gregor, in Immanuel Kant, Practical Philosophy (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996). Logic The Jäsche Logic (‘Immanuel Kant’s Logic’, ed. Gottlob Benjamin Jäsche), in Immanuel Kant, Lectures on Logic, trans. and ed. Michael J. Young (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992). MdS The Metaphysics of Morals, trans. Mary J. Gregor, in Immanuel Kant, Practical Philosophy (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Translations and abbreviations xi P Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Come Forward as Science, trans. Gary Hatﬁeld, in Immanuel Kant, Theoretical Philosophy after 1781, ed. Henry Allison and Peter Heath (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002). R Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, trans. George di Giovanni, in Immanuel Kant, Religion and Rational Theology, ed. Allen W. Wood and George di Giovanni (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996). TP On the Common Saying: That May Be Correct in Theory, But It Is of No Use in Practice, trans. Mary J. Gregor, in Immanuel Kant, Practical Philosophy (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996). ZeF Toward Perpetual Peace, trans. Mary J. Gregor, in Immanuel Kant, Practical Philosophy (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Citations have also been made to the following works of Kant: Eine Vorlesung über Ethik, ed. Gerd Gerhardt (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1990). Lectures on Ethics, ed. Peter Heath and J. B. Schneewind (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997). Lectures on Metaphysics, ed. Karl Ameriks and Steve Naragon (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997). Notes and Fragments, trans. Paul Guyer, Curtis Bowman and Frederick Rauscher (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005). Religion and Rational Theology,ed.AllenW.WoodandGeorgediGiovanni (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996). Theoretical Philosophy after 1781, ed. Henry Allison and Peter Heath (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Theoretical Philosophy, 1755–1770, trans. and ed. David Walford and Ralf Meerbote (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992) Vorlesung zur Moralphilosophie,ed. W. Stark (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 2004).