Document Type
Peer-Reviewed Article
Publication Date
Spring 1991
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to show that Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals has set a basic pattern of research for moral philosophy, a pattern established by the structure of the text, and one which implies an overarching thesis, 'the Groundwork is divided into three sections: (1) an analysis of ordinary moral judgments which identifies their formal rule, (2) the derivation of the supreme principle of morality, and (3) the presentation of a theory of reason which grounds the possibility of moral action. Kant seeks to explain the sense in which moral action may be said to manifest transcendental freedom: regardless of what may be the case in the world investigated by science, it is, Kant argues, both theoretically possible and practically necessary to affirm the idea of freedom.
Recommended Citation
Papa, E. (1991). Kant’s dubious disciples: Hare and Rawls. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 65(2): 159-175. doi: 10.5840/acpq199165224
