Naturalism and Realism in Kant's Ethics

In this comprehensive assessment of Kant's metaethics, Frederick Rauscher shows that Kant is a moral idealist rather than a moral realist and argues that Kant's ethics does not require metaphysical commitments that go beyond nature. Rauscher frames the argument in the context of Kant's non-naturalistic philosophical method and the character of practical reason as action-oriented. Reason operates entirely within nature, and apparently non-natural claims - God, free choice, and value - are shown to be heuristic and to reflect reason's ordering of nature. The book shows how Kant hesitates between a transcendental moral idealism with an empirical moral realism and a complete moral idealism. Examining every aspect of Kant's ethics, from the categorical imperative to freedom and value, this volume argues that Kant's focus on human moral agency explains morality as a part of nature. It will appeal to academic researchers and advanced students of Kant, German idealism and intellectual history.

Citations of Kant's writings; Introduction; Part I. Laying the Ground: 1. Moral realism and naturalism; 2. The place of ethics in Kant's philosophy; Part II. Practical Reason in Nature: 3. The priority of the practical and the fact of reason; 4. The transcendental status of empirical reason; Part III. Morality beyond Nature?: 5. 'God' without God: the status of the postulates; 6. From many to one to none: non-natural free choice; 7. Value and the inexplicability of the practical; Postscript: Kant's naturalist moral idealism; Works cited; Index.

Frederick Rauscher is Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University. He is the editor and co-translator of Kant: Lectures and Drafts on Political Philosophy (with Kenneth R. Westphal, Cambridge, 2015), co-translator of Notes and Fragments (with Paul Guyer and Curtis Bowman, Cambridge, 2005), and editor of Kant in Brazil (2012).