Baumgartens Legacy in Kants Ethics

This book offers the first substantial account of Alexander Gottlieb Baumgartens significant influence on Kants ethics. Arguing that Baumgartens impact is more extensive and profound than previously thought, the book provides a novel interpretation of the formation of Kants ethical framework.

Scholars have made use of Baumgartens Ethica philosophica (1740) to elucidate Kants complex terminology and to provide a background against which to understand Kants nuanced relationship to his predecessors. To date, however, no English book explores the specific influence of Baumgartens Ethica on Kant. This book comments on passages from the Ethica and contrasts them with Kants treatment of the same concepts, topics, and questions in his ethics. Notably, Baumgarten articulates ethics around the concept of duty and the principle of perfection, leading to his version of the categorical imperative: perfect yourself. While Kant rejects this ethical framework, it is evident that he directly adopts Baumgartens ideas and critiques them at the same time. Each chapter examines a major topic: the relationship between religion and ethics, duties to oneself, duties to others, duties in particular cases, and the relationship between ethics and political philosophy.

Baumgartens Legacy in Kants Ethics is an essential resource for scholars and advanced students working on Kant, 18th-century philosophy, and the history of ethics.