IMMANUEL KANT (1724-1804)

It is well known that Kant did not go beyond the critical interpretation of ethical facts in the individual consciousness. . . . [I]n consequence of this, the resulting ethic becomes purely formal and lacking in content. . . . The moment this ethic attempts to make itself concrete, i.e. to test its strength on concrete problems, it is forced to borrow the elements of content of these particular actions from the world of phenomena and from the conceptual systems that assimilate them and absorb their 'contingency.'  The principle of creation collapses as soon as the first concrete content is to be created. And Kant's ethics cannot evade such an attempt.            

Georg Lukács, "Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat" (1922)

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Readings:

Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals (excerpts)

Miscellanea:

Outline                                                            

Study Questions