Kant's first steps toward an ethical formalism

pp. 103-110

in: James K. Feibleman, Paul G. Morrison, Andrew J. Reck, Harold N. Lee, Edward Ballard, Carl H. Hamburg, Robert C. Whittemore, Centennial year number, Berlin, Springer, 1959

Abstract

Although it was only after his epistemological work that Kant was in a position to expound his conception of the moral principles of action, a study of some of his pre-critical writings makes it quite clear how important the moral problem was for him from the beginning. A good case can be made for reversing the usual presentation of his thought, according to which it moved from theoretical to ethical, aesthetic and ultimately religious concerns. Even a comparatively cursory examination of various comments and writings by, and about, Kant during his so-called "pre-critical" years will suggest that it was his growing dissatisfaction with any sort of "emotional" justification of moral concepts that drove him to search for an ever more formal expression of the principles of reason itself. This particular thesis, however, is secondary to the more modest objective of the following pages which will trace Kant's early movement towards a position of ethical formalism.