- 01Good will as the only unconditional good
- 02Reason’s proper end and the supreme good
- 03Duty as the test of moral worth
- 04Duty, inclination, and moral worth
- 05Respect for the law
- 06Universal law and the lying promise test
- 01Need for practical philosophy
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Duty, autonomy, and the categorical imperative.
3Chapters
21Lessons
52Topics
Certificate of completion included
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
Skills this course leaves you with.
- Explain Kant’s transition from common moral knowledge to philosophical ethics
- Analyze the concept of duty and distinguish hypothetical from categorical imperatives
- Apply the universal law formulation to evaluate maxims and moral actions
- Interpret the humanity formula, autonomy, and the kingdom of ends
- Assess Kant’s arguments for freedom as a condition of moral agency
- Differentiate heteronomy from autonomy in moral theory
Curriculum
The full table of contents.
Every chapter, every lesson, every topic — laid out before you enroll. Click any chapter to expand it.
- Chapters
- 3
- Lessons
- 21
- Topics
- 52
- 01Duty cannot be grounded in experience
- 02Why morality must be a priori and universal
- 03Metaphysic of morals versus popular philosophy
- 01Will, obligation, and imperative
- 01Hypothetical and categorical imperatives
- 02Imperatives of skill and prudence
- 03The imperative of morality
- 01Imperatives of prudence as counsels
- 02The possibility of the categorical imperative
- 01The categorical imperative as a practical law
- 02The formula of universal law
- 01Universal law as the principle of duty
- 02Four examples of duties tested by universalization
- 03Strict and meritorious duty
- 04Contradiction in willing exceptions
- 05A priori basis of the categorical imperative
- 06Metaphysic of morals and objective practical laws
- 07Ends, means, and practical principles
- 01Humanity as an end in itself
- 02Applications to duties to oneself and others
- 01Humanity as an end in itself
- 02The will as universal legislator
- 01Autonomy of the will and heteronomy
- 02Kingdom of ends
- 03Dignity and intrinsic worth
- 01Autonomy as the basis of dignity
- 02Kingdom of ends and universal legislation
- 03Duty, respect, and human sublimity
- 01Autonomy of the will as the supreme principle of morality
- 02Heteronomy of the will and spurious moral principles
- 01Empirical principles from happiness and moral feeling
- 02Rational principles from perfection and the will of God
- 01Critique of perfection and theological morality
- 02Heteronomy of the will as the basis of false moral principles
- 01Autonomy as the foundation of morality
- 02Freedom as causality and autonomy
- 01Freedom as a universal property of rational wills
- 01Interest in the moral law and the problem of obligation
- 02The apparent circle between freedom and moral law
- 03Two standpoints: world of sense and world of understanding
- 01Freedom and the intelligible world
- 02Categorical imperatives as synthetic a priori
- 03Common reason and moral exemplars
- 01Of the Extreme Limits of all Practical Philosophy
- 01Concluding Remark on the unconditional moral law
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