Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason

Otfried Höffe is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Professor of Practical Philosophy at the Tsinghua University in Beijing. He is also Director of the Research Center for Political Philosophy at the University of Tübingen.

• Preface1. Introduction: Four Motivating Forces1.1 Enlightenment – 1.2 Critique in the Style of a Judicial Trial– 1.3 Morality – 1.4 CosmopolitanismPart 1: Kant’s Revolution of Moral Philosophy2. Ethics as Practical Philosophy2.1 Primacy of the second Critique – 2.2 Moral Interest – 2.3 Pure Practical Reason – 2.4 A Proof in Seven Steps – 2.5 The Decisive Passage3. Critique of the Principle of Happiness3.1 Moralizing in an Ivory Tower? – 3.2 Mere Form – 3.3 Two Ethical Theories of Happiness: Aristotle and Utilitarianism4. The New Formula: The Categorical Imperative4.1 Three Tasks – 4.2 The Law of Nature as a Character of Law – 4.3 The Example of the Deposit – 4.4 An Ethics of Maxims5. The Freedom of the Will and the Fact of Reason5.1 Looking Back at the Third Antinomy – 5.2 Free Will – 5.3 The Moral Law Prior to Freedom – 5.4 The Fact of Reason – 5.5 Why be Moral: the Feeling of Respect – 5.6 What can Modern Moral Philosophy Learn from Kant?Part 2: Kant’s Provocations6. Provocation 1: A Highest Good?6.1 A Parallel to the First Critique? – 6.2 From Duty to Hope: the Highest Good – 6.3 Re-Theologizing and a Rest of Eudaimonism? – 6.4 General (Quasi-)Dialectic of Pure Reason – 6.5 The Postulates: God and Immortality7. Provocation 2: Duty contra Desire? (Schiller)7.1 Does Morality Require the Contrast with Desire? – 7.2 What is it That Finds Unity in the Beautiful Soul? – 7.3 Kant or Schiller?8. Provocation 3: A ‘Metaphysics’ of Morals?8.1 Kant as an Aristotelian – 8.2 Aristotle’s Ethics: Free of Metaphysics, yet Metaphysical – 8.3 Kant’s Ethics: Metaphysical, yet Free of MetaphysicsPart 3: World Politics and World History9. Kant’s Justice Theory of Peace9.1 A Plethora of Innovations – 9.2 ‘Royal Peoples’ and a Royal Humanity – 9.3 A Realistic Vision10. A Cosmopolitan Philosophy of History10.1 The Framework of Discussion – 10.2 The Texts – 10.3 Against Cyclopic Learnedness – 10.4 The Engine: Antagonism – 10.5 Thinking of Progress: Modest-Immodest – 10.6 On the Epistemic Status11. On the Guarantee of Perpetual Peace11.1 A Quasi-Transcendental Deduction – 11.2 The Solution: „Nature the Great Artist’ – 11.3 Outer and Inner Nature – 11.4 Constitutional, International and Cosmopolitan Right – 11.5 Epistemic StatusPart 4: Religion, Education und the Final End12. The Rational Limits of Religion12.1 No Fourth Critique – 12.2 The New Project – 12.3 ‘Bare’ Reason – 12.4 Thematic and Methodical Innovations – 12.5 The Main Topics – 12.6 A Wealth of Interpretations – 12.7 Interim Result13. Philosophy of Education13.1. Pedagogical Anthropology – 13.2 Four Goals of Education – 13.3. ‘The Child is supposed to ... Learn to Work’ – 13.4 Result14. Human Beings as the Final End14.1 The Provocative Claim – 14.2 Kant’s Argument – 14.3 On the Final End15. A Look at the More Recent German Debate15.1 The Textual Basis – 15.2. A Kant Lexicon – 15.3 Commentaries – 15.4 MonographsAfterwordAbbreviations and Method of CitationBibliographyIndex of NamesIndex of Subjects

In this thorough study, Otfried Höffe, one of Europe's most cited philosophers, goes well beyond an account of the second Critique, He makes a convincing argument that all of Kant's critical philosophy is devoted to a sophisticated defense, with great contemporary relevance, of the primacy of practical reason in general.