Abstract

This work considers Kant's earliest thoughts on moral philosophy as reflected in a number of published writings and private reflections composed between 1762 and 1765. This portion of the Kantian corpus has gone largely unexamined, particularly by Anglo-American scholars. A thorough understanding of Kant's early views sheds light on his mature moral philosophy, and is a necessary prolegomenon to understanding the development of his ethics. Kant's early writings on ethics indicate that he was far more aware of the important role human feelings play in moral experience than those who read only his mature formal ethical writings usually give him credit for. They also indicate that the effects of the "Rousseauian Revolution" in Kant's moral philosophy manifest themselves much earlier than has traditionally been thought. ;To understand Kant's early moral philosophy, his views must be related to those of his immediate predecessors and contemporaries; for they form the frame of reference for the meaning of his position. Kant's early thought is informed by: the British sentimentalists's critique of ethical rationalism; Rousseau's critique of the philosophes; and Crusius's critique of the ethical rationalism of Leibniz and Wolff. ;Two distinct phases of thought are represented in the period under consideration. The first phase of Kant's thought is characterized by an avowed affinity with the British moral sense theory. Kant maintains that an irreducible and unanalyzable feeling of approbation is the criterion for moral goodness. Despite his agreement with the sentimentalists on this point, he maintains that sentimentalism must be supplemented through the addition of formal moral principles. Rousseau's work leads Kant to a fundamentally new understanding of morality in 1764. The second phase of Kant's thought is characterized by his rejection of moral sentimentalism, and the development of a purely formal morality. Kant sees in Rousseau's doctrine of the general will a purely formal principle whereby the human soul can structure itself. By this time Kant has come to see morality as involving one's conforming his private will to the ideal of a universal will