Kant's Metaphysics of the Will: Freedom, Reason, and the Moral Law

By: Jaqueline Mariña

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Synopsis: The idea of the individual as autonomous, capable of understanding through the use of reason what morality requires, and capable of doing the right thing because it is right, is one of the pillars of the Enlightenment, and Kant's ethics provides a robust account of the way in which the individual's capacity for moral insight, and freedom to make choices in accordance with such insight, are indispensable for any account of an authentic commitment to the objective good. Jacqueline Mariña situates Kant's ethical and metaethical arguments in the wider context of his claims in his critical works, convincingly rebutting recent claims that he did not succeed in showing that rational agents are necessarily bound by the moral law, and that he ended up with an empty moral dogmatism. Her book shows that the whole of Kant's critical works, both theoretical and practical, were much more coherent than many interpreters allow.