Preface

Summary

Immanuel Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals of 1785 is one of the most profound and important works in the history of practical philosophy. In this Introduction to the Groundwork, I provide a guide to Kant's text that follows the course of his discussion virtually paragraph by paragraph. I have aimed to convey Kant's ideas and arguments as clearly and simply as possible, without getting lost in scholarly controversies. I have tried to produce a guide that is easy to use. The organization of all but my first chapter mirrors that of Kant's discussion in the Preface and three sections of the Groundwork. I subdivide my chapters into topic headings that track the progression of his arguments. I frequently provide page references to the Academy edition of the Groundwork, so that the reader can match up my discussion with the relevant passages in Kant's text.

Although I have strived for accessibility throughout this work, the reader will discover that I have not always succeeded. In part, this reflects the fact that Kant's own narrative in the Groundwork is not uniformly accessible. He is particularly obscure when he turns his attention to methodological matters. Moreover, he sometimes relies on arguments he has provided in other texts. This is most obviously the case in the third and most challenging section of the Groundwork, where he sets out to demonstrate the reality of human freedom.