Conclusion

Summary

The final form of Kant's ethical theory

More than thirty years elapsed between Kant's first announcement that he was producing a “metaphysics of morals” and the publication of his work with that title. Kant's final system of ethics is even now not studied by philosophers with the same care as the Groundwork and Critique of practical reason. Consequently, the projections they make on the basis of these more abstract, foundational works often do not fit what Kant says about the moral life in the book that was most explicitly devoted to it. Although a systematic exposition of the Metaphysics of morals lies beyond the scope of this book, in the preceding chapters I have tried to interpret Kant's ethical thought, and especially the Groundwork, in light of the ethical system it was supposed to ground. In these concluding remarks it will be appropriate to devote some space to showing how Kant's final system of practical philosophy reflects the spirit of Kant's ethical thought as I have presented it.

The Metaphysics of morals (Sitten) is divided into two main parts. The first is a Doctrine of Right (Rechtslehre). The second deals with “ethics” (Ethik), which is a Doctrine of Virtue (Tugendlehre). The doctrine of right is independent of the doctrine of virtue because right is the task of the epoch of nature, while virtue is the task of the epoch of freedom.