Kant s Practical Philosophy

Kant s Practical Philosophy

By the same author EVIL SPIRITS: Nihilism and the Fate of Modernity (editor with Charlie Blake) KANT AND THE ENDS OF AESTHETICS

Kant s Practical Philosophy From Critique to Doctrine Gary Banham Research Fellow in Transcendental Philosophy Manchester Metropolitan University

Gary Banham 2003 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 978-0-333-99399-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-4039-8987-1 ISBN 978-0-230-50118-8 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230501188 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Banham, Gary, 1965 Kant s practical philosophy : from critique to doctrine / Gary Banham. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Kant, Immanuel, 1724 1804 Ethics. 2. Ethics, Modern 18th century. I. Title. B2799.E8B275 2003 170.92 dc21 2002193091 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03

For All My Polish Friends with Gratitude

Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 1. Kant s Pre-Critical Ethics 8 2. Freedom and the Ends of Reason 37 3. The Supreme Principle of Morality 64 4. The Fact of Reason and the Summum Bonum 93 5. Radical Evil and Moral Redemption 118 6. Possession, Property and Contract 152 7. The Ends of Virtue 181 8. The Final Ends of Practical Philosophy 212 Notes 239 Bibliography 259 Index 265 vii

Acknowledgements The thoughts underlying this work have been gestating for some time and versions of the general conception or parts thereof have been presented to a conference on Ethics and Time at Lancaster University, the Summer Seminar Series at Manchester Metropolitan University, the students of Parrs Wood Adult Education Centre, the Philosophy Seminar at Bolton Institute and the exchange programme between Manchester Metropolitan University and the Institute for Philosophy and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences. I would like to thank participants on these occasions for helpful comments on certain points especially Rachel Jones, Adel El-Beik, Suzanne Stern-Gillet, Jim Urpeth and Agata Bielik-Robson. The writing of the work has been helped by my appointment as a Research Fellow in Transcendental Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University and I would like to thank my colleagues for providing me with a supportive environment for research. My thanks should also go to Howard Caygill for judicious advice and general inspiration, to John Protevi for encouragement and useful comments, to Heather Gibson for her support for this project, Joe Whelan and Mary Naughton for supererogatory hospitality and to Anastatazja Dwulit and Kasia Nowak who showed me something of the other side of the rainbow. My greatest debt continues to be to Don Milligan, whose support is constant and who steers me through. ix