Kant And The Cultivation Of Virtue

In this book, Chris W. Surprenant puts forward an original position concerning Kant’s practical philosophy and the intersection between his moral and political philosophy. Although Kant provides a detailed account of the nature of morality, the nature of human virtue, and how right manifests itself in civil society, he does not explain fully how individuals are able to become virtuous. This book aims to resolve this problem by showing how an individual is able to cultivate virtue, the aim of Kant’s practical philosophy. Through an examination of Kant’s accounts of autonomy, the state, and religion, and their effects on the cultivation of virtue, Surprenant develops a Kantian framework for moral education, and ultimately raises the question of whether or not Kantian virtue is possible in practice.

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.

A new approach to Kant's conception of virtue which grounds it in his innovative account of reflection and cognitive agency.

An examination on how virtue is acquired in Kant''s ethics.In Kant''s philosophy, virtue is defined as the moral strength or resolve to adopt obligatory ends and to act upon only those maxims that can apply equally to all. But how is virtue acquired? To answer this question, this projectturns to Kant''s moral anthropology, broadly conceived, in which he considers those "subjective conditions in human nature" that both facilitate and hinder the quest for virtue.Tailored to the specific constitution of human beings,then, are a number of moral-anthropological strategies for strengthening and promoting moral principles. Drawing on Kant''s own discussions and the work of several contemporary interpreters this study identifies key approaches tocharacter formation. The central concern of the project, however, is to investigate the roles Kant suggests the larger social-political and natural settings -- that is, the dynamic and inspiring contexts of natural beauty, law andpolitical discourse -- play in the process of virtue acquisition. The story of politics'' and nature''s influence on virtue acquisition leads into intriguing and, given traditional understandings of Kant, unexpected territory.This study also takes up the question of reciprocal relations: Once acquired, What support, if any, does virtue provide for politics and nature? With the goal of highlighting what may be valuable in a Kantian approach tothe environment, the book assesses the workability of alternative ethical paradigms, e.g. bio- and ecocentric philosophies, and concludes that, while both schools of thought challenge anthropocentric assumptions in helpful ways, they are ultimately flawed. By engaging in this kind of critique, this study creates a plausibility structure for re-considering the merits of a Kantian approach. Scott Roulier is Associate Professor of Political Science at Lyon College.tue acquisition. The story of politics'' and nature''s influence on virtue acquisition leads into intriguing and, given traditional understandings of Kant, unexpected territory.This study also takes up the question of reciprocal relations: Once acquired, What support, if any, does virtue provide for politics and nature? With the goal of highlighting what may be valuable in a Kantian approach tothe environment, the book assesses the workability of alternative ethical paradigms, e.g. bio- and ecocentric philosophies, and concludes that, while both schools of thought challenge anthropocentric assumptions in helpful ways, they are ultimately flawed. By engaging in this kind of critique, this study creates a plausibility structure for re-considering the merits of a Kantian approach. Scott Roulier is Associate Professor of Political Science at Lyon College.tue acquisition. The story of politics'' and nature''s influence on virtue acquisition leads into intriguing and, given traditional understandings of Kant, unexpected territory.This study also takes up the question of reciprocal relations: Once acquired, What support, if any, does virtue provide for politics and nature? With the goal of highlighting what may be valuable in a Kantian approach tothe environment, the book assesses the workability of alternative ethical paradigms, e.g. bio- and ecocentric philosophies, and concludes that, while both schools of thought challenge anthropocentric assumptions in helpful ways, they are ultimately flawed. By engaging in this kind of critique, this study creates a plausibility structure for re-considering the merits of a Kantian approach. Scott Roulier is Associate Professor of Political Science at Lyon College.tue acquisition. The story of politics'' and nature''s influence on virtue acquisition leads into intriguing and, given traditional understandings of Kant, unexpected territory.This study also takes up the question of reciprocal relations: Once acquired, What support, if any, does virtue provide for politics and nature? With the goal of highlighting what may be valuable in a Kantian approach tothe environment, the book assesses the workability of alternative ethical paradigms, e.g. bio- and ecocentric philosophies, and concludes that, while both schools of thought challenge anthropocentric assumptions in helpful ways, they are ultimately flawed. By engaging in this kind of critique, this study creates a plausibility structure for re-considering the merits of a Kantian approach. Scott Roulier is Associate Professor of Political Science at Lyon College.pected territory.This study also takes up the question of reciprocal relations: Once acquired, What support, if any, does virtue provide for politics and nature? With the goal of highlighting what may be valuable in a Kantian approach tothe environment, the book assesses the workability of alternative ethical paradigms, e.g. bio- and ecocentric philosophies, and concludes that, while both schools of thought challenge anthropocentric assumptions in helpful ways, they are ultimately flawed. By engaging in this kind of critique, this study creates a plausibility structure for re-considering the merits of a Kantian approach. Scott Roulier is Associate Professor of Political Science at Lyon College.

The philosophy of Immanuel Kant is the watershed of modern thought, which irrevocably changed the landscape of the field and prepared the way for all the significant philosophical movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This 2006 volume, which complements The Cambridge Companion to Kant, covers every aspect of Kant's philosophy, with a particular focus on his moral and political philosophy. It also provides detailed coverage of Kant's historical context and of the enormous impact and influence that his work has had on the subsequent history of philosophy. The bibliography also offers extensive and organized coverage of both classical and recent books on Kant. This volume thus provides the broadest and deepest introduction currently available on Kant and his place in modern philosophy, making accessible the philosophical enterprise of Kant to those coming to his work for the first time.

Immanuel Kant's Metaphysics of Morals (1797), containing the Doctrine of Right and Doctrine of Virtue, is his final major work of practical philosophy. Its focus is not rational beings in general but human beings in particular, and it presupposes and deepens Kant's earlier accounts of morality, freedom and moral psychology. In this volume of newly-commissioned essays, a distinguished team of contributors explores the Metaphysics of Morals in relation to Kant's earlier works, as well as examining themes which emerge from the text itself. Topics include the relation between right and virtue, property, punishment, and moral feeling. Their diversity of questions, perspectives and approaches will provide new insights into the work for scholars in Kant's moral and political theory.

Though virtue ethics is enjoying a resurgence, the topic of virtue cultivation has been largely neglected by philosophers. This book features essays by philosophers, theologians, and psychologists at the forefront of research into virtue.--Publisher's description.

The essays collected in this volume by Paul Guyer, one of the world's foremost Kant scholars, explore Kant's attempt to develop a morality grounded on the intrinsic and unconditional value of the human freedom to set our own ends. When regulated by the principle that the freedom of all is equally valuable, the freedom to set our own ends — what Kant calls "humanity" - becomes what he calls autonomy. These essays explore Kant's strategies for establishing the premise that freedom is the inner worth of the world or the essential end of humankind, as he says, and for deriving the specific duties that fundamental principle of morality generates in the empirical circumstances of human existence. The Virtues of Freedom further investigates Kant's attempts to prove that we are always free to live up to this moral ideal, that is, that we have free will no matter what, as well as his more successful explorations of the ways in which our natural tendencies to be moral — dispositions to the feeling of respect and more specific feelings such as love and self-esteem — can and must be cultivated and educated. Guyer finally examines the various models of human community that Kant develops from his premise that our associations must be based on the value of freedom for all. The contrasts but also similarities of Kant's moral philosophy to that of David Hume but many of his other predecessors and contemporaries, such as Stoics and Epicureans, Pufendorf and Wolff, Hutcheson, Kames, and Smith, are also explored.