Immanuel Kant Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===="The Doctrine of Virtue"==== As Kant explains in the 1785 ''[[Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals]]'' (and as its title directly indicates) that text is "nothing more than the search for and establishment of the ''supreme principle of morality''".<ref>Kant, ''GMM'' 4:392.</ref> His promised ''Metaphysics of Morals'', however, was much delayed and did not appear until its two parts, "The Doctrine of Right" and "The Doctrine of Virtue", were published separately in 1797 and 1798.<ref>Gregor, Mary J. (1996) "Translator's note on the text of The metaphysics of morals". In ''Practical Philosophy''. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant, p. 355.</ref> The first deals with political philosophy, the second with ethics. "The Doctrine of Virtue" provides "a very different account of ordinary moral reasoning" than the one suggested by the ''Groundwork''.{{sfn|Wood|2006|p=68}} It is concerned with ''duties of virtue'' or "ends that are at the same time duties".<ref>Kant, ''MM''. 6:382β391.</ref> It is here, in the domain of ethics, that the greatest innovation by ''The Metaphysics of Morals'' is to be found. According to Kant's account, "ordinary moral reasoning is fundamentally teleological{{mdash}}it is reasoning about what ends we are constrained by morality to pursue, and the priorities among these ends we are required to observe".{{sfn|Wood|2006|p=69}} More specifically, <blockquote>There are two sorts of ends that it is our duty to have: our own perfection and the happiness of others (''MS'' 6:385). "Perfection" includes both our natural perfection (the development of our talents, skills, and capacities of understanding) and moral perfection (our virtuous disposition) (''MS'' 6:387). A person's "happiness" is the greatest rational whole of the ends the person set for the sake of her<!--Kant, Wood????--> own satisfaction (''MS'' 6:387β388).{{sfn|Wood|2006|p=70}}</blockquote> Kant's elaboration of this teleological doctrine offers up a moral theory very different from the one typically attributed to him on the basis of his foundational works alone. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page