In 1792, with the aim of defending Kant's doctrine of freedom, Reinhold redefined freedom of will as the ability to decide for or against the moral law. Thus freedom of will represents a foundation of moral philosophy, if not of philosophy as a whole. The present volume seeks to reinterpret and to discuss this chapter of the post-Kantian discourse on freedom from various perspectives.

In his new book the eminent Kant scholar Henry Allison provides an innovative and comprehensive interpretation of Kant's concept of freedom. The author analyzes the concept and discusses the role it plays in Kant's moral philosophy and psychology. He also considers in full detail the critical literature on the subject from Kant's own time to the present day. In the first part Professor Allison argues that at the centre of the Critique of Pure Reason there is the foundation for a (...) coherent general theory of rational agency. The second part employs this account of rational agency as a key to understanding Kant's concept of moral agency and associated moral psychology. The third part focuses on Kant's attempt to ground both moral law and freedom in the Groundwork and the Critique of Practical Reason. This is a major contribution to the interpretation of Kant which will be of special interest to scholars and graduate students of Kant's moral theory. (shrink)

This seminal text in the history of moral philosophy elaborates the basic themes of Kant ’s moral theory, gives the most complete statement of his highly original theory of freedom of the will, and develops his practical metaphysics. This new edition, prepared by an acclaimed translator and scholar of Kant ’s practical philosophy, presents the first new translation of the work to appear for many years, together with a substantial and lucid introduction.

Prior to this work, Prauss has already become well known as a Kant commentator and also as one of the most distinguished systematic philosophers in Germany today. This book extends his work in both directions. First, although it appears to treat just one issue, freedom, it uses this issue to give Prauss's broadest interpretation of Kant to date, one which includes coverage of all three Critiques and many lesser known texts. Secondly, the work brings together and significantly refines many of (...) the main arguments of Prauss's earlier books. The emphasis on the theory/praxis relation that surfaced in Erkennen und Handeln in Heideggers "Sein und Zeit" is integrated here with the epistemology articulated in Einführung in die Erkenntnistheorie, and all this is built on to the analysis of Kant's theory of judgment explicated in Erscheinung bei Kant and the connections between aprioricity, subjectivity, and actuality developed in Kant und das Problem der Dinge an sich. This implicit dependence on so many earlier results might give some readers trouble, but on the whole the present book is probably one of Prauss's most accessible ones. It has a relatively leisurely style, it begins with a helpful introduction that surveys all the main points, and it repeats important themes at appropriate intervals. As for readers already familiar with Prauss, they will find not only the subtlety, carefulness, and precise documentation they have come to expect, but also some explicit modifications of earlier views. (shrink)

Der zweite Band der Beiträge setzt das vier Jahre zuvor angefangene Projekt einer Aufstellung des Fundaments vom philosophischen Wissen fort und erweitert es in der Anwendung auf Metaphysik, Moral, Religion und Geschmackslehre. Die seither entstandenen Auseinandersetzungen mit Kantianern und Antikantianern über Idee und Grenzen der Elementarphilosophie veranlassen Reinhold dazu, seine bisher vertretenen spekulativen Ansätze zu überdenken, und dienen ihm als Ansporn für Reflexionen über vorher nicht direkt thematisierte Fragen.

Wie ist es moglich, dass der Mensch als freiwilliger Urheber seiner Handlungen - seien sie moralisch gut oder bose - angesehen werden kann? Die Studie verfolgt historisch-systematisch verschiedene im Ausgang von Kant hervorgebrachte Antworten auf diese Frage - bei Karl Leonhard Reinhold, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Gottlieb Fichte und Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. Die Studie zeigt, dass diese Freiheitsdebatte in einer grosseren Tradition von Entwurfen willentlicher Selbstbestimmung steht, die sich uber Leibniz, Duns Scotus und Thomas von Aquin bis hin zu Augustinus (...) zuruckverfolgen lassen und im Begriff des liberum arbitrium voluntatis, einer reflektierten und moralisch qualifizierten Entscheidungsfreiheit, ihren systematischen Bezugspunkt haben. (shrink)