2020/05/27 by Thomas E. Hill
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Philosophical Ethics and Theory #Political Philosophy and Ethics #War, Ethics, and Justification
paper · doi:10.7591/9781501735035
crossref issued 2020/05/27 · crossref published 2020/05/27 · crossref published-online 2020/05/27 · openalex publication_date 2020/05/27 · crossref created 2020/05/31 · crossref published-print 2020/12/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/06/09 · crossref indexed 2026/06/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
In this collection of eleven papers, Thomas E. Hill, Jr., addresses the most central and difficult concepts in Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, as well as more specific moral issues drawn from his later ethical writings. Among the topics Hill discusses are hypothetical and categorical imperatives, formulas of the supreme moral principle, autonomy and practical reason, and the argument for the rationality of moral commitment. He is also concerned with types of duty, theory of punishment, moral responses to terrorism, and relations between Kant's moral theory and John Rawls's theory of justice. Hill treats Kant's work respectfully and constructively, while maintaining a degree of judicious doubt. Rather than belaboring familiar objections, he tries to interpret and reconstruct central ideas as worthy of contemporary attention although often in need of revision and development. Explaining difficult texts clearly without oversimplifying Kant 's distinctive message, he presents a broad view of Kant's basic ideas of autonomy, practical reason, moral legislation, and the aims of moral theory. A major statement on Kant's moral thought, this outstanding collection will be rewarding reading for professional philosophers, teachers of Kant's ethics, and students, as well as political theorists.