5 Lessons from Kant: On Ethics

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is most famous for his classic Critique of Pure Reason which is a complex and difficult work setting forth how the categories of our understanding yield knowledge through sense experience. Yet, later in life, he also completed his work on ethics by publishing The Metaphysics of Morals (in German: Metaphysik der Sitten), which was the culmination of his previous writings and lectures on ethics. 5 Lessons from Kant discusses five themes in this culminating ethical work: 1. Moral Philosophy as External Law and as Ethics; 2. The Categorical Imperative; 3. Domestic and International Politics; 4. Ends and Duties; 5. Duties to Oneself and to Others. These five themes concisely present Kant's proposals for morality and ethics. Many of his ethical insights will not be surprising to most Westerners sharing Kant's Classical and Judeo-Christian inheritance--Westerners who, in any event, have also unwittingly absorbed the influence of Kant. Kant's own method of justifying these moral ideas through reason without relying on religious revelation or authority remains a formidable proposal that is still influential today and will benefit anyone pondering how nation-states should interact and how individual persons should best live their lives.