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  3. Kant's Theory of Virtue
  • Cited by 61
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
December 2010
Print publication year:
2010
Online ISBN:
9780511779466
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511779466
Subjects:
History of Philosophy, Eighteenth-Century Philosophy, Philosophy
Series:
Modern European Philosophy
Information

Book description

Anne Margaret Baxley offers a systematic interpretation of Kant's theory of virtue, whose most distinctive features have not been properly understood. She explores the rich moral psychology in Kant's later and less widely read works on ethics, and argues that the key to understanding his account of virtue is the concept of autocracy, a form of moral self-government in which reason rules over sensibility. Although certain aspects of Kant's theory bear comparison to more familiar Aristotelian claims about virtue, Baxley contends that its most important aspects combine to produce something different - a distinctively modern, egalitarian conception of virtue which is an important and overlooked alternative to the more traditional Greek views which have dominated contemporary virtue ethics.

Reviews

"....this contribution by Baxley (Washington Univ. in St. Louis) is noteworthy in its meticulous analysis of autocracy as the linchpin for understanding Kantian virtue.... For dedicated Kant scholars (and perhaps Schiller scholars) this book is a worthy addition, but it may be too advanced for most readers.... Recommended...."
--L.A. Wilkinson, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, CHOICE

"...lucid, levelheaded and (from a Kantian perspective at least) deeply interesting book.... an impressive achievement and everyone who is interested in Kantian ethics and moral psychology ought to read Baxley's book..."
--Carsten Fogh Nielsen, Ph.D., University of Aarhus, Metapsychology Online Review

"...Anne Margaret Baxley’s book, Kant’s Theory of Virtue, is the most informative and comprehensive discussion of the nature and role of virtue in Kant’s ethics currently available..."
--Robert B. Louden, University of Southern Maine, Journal of the History of Philosophy

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Contents

Contents
References
Select bibliography
Kant's works and other primary sources
,Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Terence Irwin, 2nd edition, Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett, 1999.
Garve, Christian, Philosophische Anmerkungen und Abhandlungen zu Ciceros Buchern von den Pflichten, Breslau: Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn, 1783.
Hegel, G. W. F., Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. Miller, A. V., New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Kant, Immanuel, An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? trans. Mary J. Gregor, in Practical Philosophy, ed. Gregor, Mary J. (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Kant, Immanuel, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy), ed. and trans. Louden, Robert B., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Kant, Immanuel, Critique of Judgment, trans. Pluhar, Werner S., Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett, 1987.
Kant, Immanuel, Critique of Practical Reason, trans. Mary J. Gregor, in Practical Philosophy, ed. Mary J. Gregor (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Kant, Immanuel, Gesammelte Schriften, ed. the Royal Prussian (later German, then Berlin-Brandenburg) Academy of Sciences, 29 vols., Berlin: Georg Reimer (later Walter de Gruyter & Co.), 1900–.
Kant, Immanuel, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. Mary J. Gregor, in Practical Philosophy, ed. Gregor, Mary J. (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Kant, Immanuel, Kant on the metaphysics of morals: Vigilantius's lecture notes, trans. Peter Heath, in Lectures on Ethics, ed. Heath, Peter and Schneewind, J. B. (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Kant, Immanuel, Metaphysics of Morals, trans. Mary J. Gregor, in Practical Philosophy, ed. Gregor, Mary J. (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Kant, Immanuel, Moral Philosophy: Collins's lecture notes, trans. Peter Heath, in Lectures on Ethics, ed. Heath, Peter and Schneewind, J. B. (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Kant, Immanuel, Morality according to Prof. Kant: Mrongovius's second set of lecture notes (selections), trans. Peter Heath, in Lectures on Ethics, ed. Heath, Peter and Schneewind, J. B. (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Kant, Immanuel, On the Common Saying: That May be Correct in Theory, But It Is of No Use in Practice, trans. Mary J. Gregor, in Practical Philosophy, ed. Gregor, Mary J. (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Kant, Immanuel, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy), ed. and trans. Wood, Allen and Giovanni, George Di, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Kant, Immanuel, Toward Perpetual Peace, trans. Mary J. Gregor, in Practical Philosophy, ed. Gregor, Mary J. (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Schiller, Friedrich, The Complete Works of Friedrich Schiller, Volume VIII: Aesthetical and Philosophical Essays, trans. anonymous, New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1902.
Schiller, Friedrich, Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man, ed. and trans. Wilkinson, Elizabeth M. and Willoughby, L. A., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.
Schiller, Friedrich, Schiller's “On Grace and Dignity” in Its Cultural Context: Essays and a New Translation (Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture), ed. Curran, Jane V. and Fricker, Christophe, Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2005.
Schiller, Friedrich, Über Anmut und Würde, in Schiller's Werke, Volume IV: Schriften, introd. Meyer, Hans and Mann, Golo, Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1966.
Schiller, Friedrich, and Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, Xenien: “The Philosophers,” in Goethe's Werke, Volume I, ed. Trunz, Erich, Munich: Beck, 1982.
Schopenhauer, Arthur, On the Basis of Morality, trans. E. F. J. Payne, Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett, 1995.
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Annas, Julia, The Morality of Happiness, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Annas, Julia, “Virtue Ethics,” in The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory, ed. Copp, David, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 515–36.
Baron, Marcia, “Acting from Duty (GMS I, 397–401),” in Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, ed. Horn, Christoph and Schönecker, Dieter, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2006, pp. 72–92.
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Baron, Marcia, “Love and Respect in the Doctrine of Virtue,” in Kant's Metaphysics of Morals: Interpretive Essays, ed. Timmons, Mark, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 391–407.
Baxley, Anne Margaret, “Autocracy and Autonomy,” Kant-Studien 94, 1 (2003): 1–23.
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Carnois, Bernard, The Coherence of Kant's Doctrine of Freedom, trans. David Booth, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Deligiorgi, Katerina, “Grace as a Guide to Morals? Schiller's Aesthetic Turn in Ethics,” History of Philosophy Quarterly 23, 1(2006): 1–20.
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