ENGLISH

Constructions of Reason: Explorations of Kant's Practical Philosophy

By Onora O'Neill

Book information

Year
1990
ISBN
0521388163, 9780521388160, 0521381215, 9780521381215
LCC
B2799.E8 O54 1989
Open Library ID
OL2191332M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
5 MB (5057444 bytes)
Pages
264\263
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

Two centuries after they were published, Kant's ethical writings are as much admired and imitated as they have ever been, yet serious and long-standing accusations of internal incoherence remain unresolved. Onora O'Neill traces the alleged incoherences to attempts to assimilate Kant's ethical writings to modern conceptions of rationality, action and rights. When the temptation to assimilate is resisted, a strikingly different and more cohesive account of reason and morality emerges. Kant offers a "constructivist" vindication of reason and a moral vision in which obligations are prior to rights and in which justice and virtue are linked. O'Neill begins by reconsidering Kant's conceptions of philosophical method, reason, freedom, autonomy and action. She then moves on to the more familiar terrain of interpretation of the Categorical Imperative, while in the last section she emphasizes differences between Kant's ethics and recent "Kantian" ethics, including the work of John Rawls and other contemporary liberal political philosophers.

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