Kategorische und andere Imperative

This study has given new impetus to the research on the development of Kantian ethics, which has been moribund for some time. Based on a comprehensive evaluation of lecture transcripts which have now been published and the use of computerized support, the previous picture of the moral philosopher Kant who supposedly stopped much too early has to be drastically revised. Using the customarily ignored classification of imperatives as a guideline, the study shows step by step how twisted the long path was to the concept of ethics in the ‹Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten‹ (Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals). In differentiating between skillfulness, prudence and morality as the three basic kinds of practice, Kant succeeds in the end in expressing the exciting complexity of human activity in an ingeniously simple and a simply ingenious manner.