Primary Sources

Kant’s original German and Latin writings can be found in Königlichen Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (ed.), 1900–, Kants gesammelte Schriften, Berlin: Walter De Gruyter. Most translations include volume and page numbers to this standard Academy edition. Citations in this article do so as well. There are many English translations of Kant’s primary ethical writings. The recent Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant provides critical translations of Kant’s published works as well as selections from his correspondence and lectures. The following volumes of that series are especially relevant to his moral theory:

• Practical Philosophy, translated by Mary Gregor, 1996. Includes: “An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?,” Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of Practical Reason, and The Metaphysics of Morals. (Scholar)
• Religion and Rational Theology, translated by Allen Wood and George di Giovanni, 1996. Includes: Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason
• Anthropology, History, and Education, translated by Robert Louden and Guenther Zoeller, 2008. Includes: “Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim,” Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, and “Lectures on Pedagogy”
• Lectures on Ethics, translated by Peter Heath and J.B. Schneewind, 2001.
• Critique of Pure Reason, translated by Paul Guyer and Allen Wood, 1998.

Recent Commentaries on Kant’s Ethical Writings

There have been several comprehensive commentaries on the Groundwork that have been published recently, some of which also include new English translations.

• Allison, Henry, 2011, Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals: A Commentary, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Denis, Lara, 2005, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press. (Scholar)
• Guyer, Paul, 2007, Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals: A Reader’s Guide, New York: Continuum. (Scholar)
• Hill, Thomas & Zweig, Arnulf, 2003, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, New York: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Höffe, Otfried (ed. ), 1989, “Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten”: Ein Kooperativer Kommentar, Frankfurt: Vittorio Klostermann. (Scholar)
• Schönecker, Dieter, 2015, Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals: A Commentary, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Scholar)
• Timmermann, Jens, 2007, Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A Commentary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Wolff, Robert Paul, 1973, The Autonomy of Reason: A Commentary on Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, New York: Harper & Row. (Scholar)

There are also recent commentaries on The Metaphysics of Morals:

• Andreas Trampota, Andreas, Sensen, Oliver & Timmermann, Jens (eds.), 2011, Kant’s “Tugendlehre”: A Commentary, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 343–364. (Scholar)
• Byrd, Sharon & Hruschka, Joachim, 2010 Kant’s Doctrine of Right: A Commentary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Gregor, Mary, 1963, The Laws of Freedom, Oxford: Basil Blackwell. (Scholar)

The classic commentary on the Critique of Practical Reason is:

• Beck, Lewis White, 1960, A Commentary on Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Scholar)

Other Secondary Sources

• Allison, Henry, 1990, Kant’s Theory of Freedom, New York: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Ameriks, Karl, 2003, “On Two Non-Realist Interpretations of Kant’s Ethics,” in his Interpreting Kant’s Critiques, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 263–282. (Scholar)
• Aune, Bruce, 1979, Kant’s Theory of Morals, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Scholar)
• Baron, Marcia, 2003, “Acting from Duty,” in Immanuel Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Allen Wood (trans. ), New Haven: Yale University Press, 98–9. (Scholar)
• –––, 1995, Kantian Ethics Almost Without Apology, Ithica: Cornell University Press. (Scholar)
• Barclay, Linda, 2020, Disability with Dignity, New York: Routledge. (Scholar)
• Baxley, Anne Margaret, 2010, Kant’s Theory of Virtue: The Value of Autocracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Betzler, Monica, 2008, Kant’s Ethics of Virtue, New York: Walter de Gruyter. (Scholar)
• Carnois, Bernard, 1987, The Coherence of Kant’s Doctrine of Freedom, D. Booth (tr.), Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Scholar)
• Cureton, Adam, 2013, “A Contractualist Reading of Kant’s Proof of the Formula of Humanity,” Kantian Review, 18(3): 363–86. (Scholar)
• –––, 2014, “Making Room for Rules,” Philosophical Studies, 172(3): 737–759. (Scholar)
• ––– 2014, “Kant on Cultivating a Good and Stable Will,” in Iskra Fileva (ed.), Perspectives on Character, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 63–77. (Scholar)
• –––, 2016, “Offensive Beneficence,” Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 2(1): 74–90. (Scholar)
• –––, and Thomas E. Hill, 2014, “Kant on Virtue and the Virtues,” in Nancy Snow (ed.), Cultivating Virtue, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 87–110. (Scholar)
• –––, 2018, “Kant on Virtue: Seeking the Ideal in Human Conditions,” in Nancy Snow (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Virtue, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 263–280. (Scholar)
• –––, 2021, “Treating Disabled Adults as Children: An Application of Kant’s Conception of Respect,” in Respect: Philosophical Essays, Richard Dean and Oliver Sensen (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 270–288. (Scholar)
• Darwall, Stephen, 1985, “Kantian Practical Reason Defended,” Ethics, 96: 89–99. (Scholar)
• –––, 1977, “Two Kinds of Respect,” Ethics, 88: 36–49. (Scholar)
• Denis, Lara, 2006, “Kant’s Conception of Virtue,” in Paul Guyer (ed. ), Cambridge Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 505–537. (Scholar)
• Engstrom, Stephen, 1992, “The Concept of the Highest Good in Kant’s Moral Philosophy,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 51(4): 747–80. (Scholar)
• –––, 2009, The Form of Practical Knowledge, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2002, “The Inner Freedom of Virtue,” in Mark Timmons (ed.), Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals: Interpretative Essays, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 289–315. (Scholar)
• Feldman, Fred, 1978, “Kantian Ethics,” in his Introductory Ethics, New York: Prentice-Hall, 97–117. (Scholar)
• Foot, Philippa, 1972, “Morality as a System of Hypothetical Imperatives,” The Philosophical Review, 81(3): 305–316. (Scholar)
• Guyer, Paul, 1987, Kant and the Claims of Knowledge, New York: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2000, Kant on Freedom, Law, and Happiness, New York: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2005, Kant’s System of Nature and Freedom: Selected Essays, New York: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2009, “Problems with Freedom: Kant’s Argument in Groundwork III and its Subsequent Emendations,” in Jens Timmermann (ed.) Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A Critical Guide, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 176–202. (Scholar)
• Herman, Barbara, 1993, The Practice of Moral Judgment, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 1996, “Making Room for Character,” in Aristotle, Kant, and the Stoics: Rethinking Happiness and Duty, in S. Engstrom and J. Whiting (eds.), New York: Cambridge University Press, 36–60. (Scholar)
• Hill, Thomas E., 2001, “Hypothetical Consent in Kantian Constructivism,” Social Philosophy and Policy, 18 (2): 300–329. Reprinted in his 2002 Human Welfare and Moral Worth, New York: Cambridge University Press, 61–96 (Scholar)
• –––, 1989a, “Kantian Constructivism in Ethics,” Ethics, 99: 752–70. Reprinted in his 1992 Dignity and Practical Reason in Kant’s Moral Theory, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 226–250. (Scholar)
• –––, 1971, “Kant on Imperfect Duty and Supererogation,” Kant Studien, 62: 55–76. Reprinted in his 1992 Dignity and Practical Reason in Kant’s Moral Theory, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 147–175. (Scholar)
• –––, 2008, “Kantian Virtue and ’Virtue Ethics’”, in Monika Betzler (ed.), Kant’s Ethics of Virtues, Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 29–60. Reprinted in his 2012 Virtue, Rules, and Justice: Kantian Aspirations, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 129–59. (Scholar)
• –––, 1973, “The Hypothetical Imperative,” The Philosophical Review, 82: 429–50. Reprinted in his 1992 Dignity and Practical Reason in Kant’s Moral Theory, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 17–37. (Scholar)
• –––, 1989b, “The Kantian Conception of Autonomy,” in The Inner Citadel: Essays on Individual Autonomy, John Christman (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press. Reprinted in his 1992 Dignity and Practical Reason in Kant’s Moral Theory, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 76–96. (Scholar)
• –––, 1972, “The Kingdom of Ends,” Proceedings of the Third International Kant Congress: Held at the University of Rochester, March 30–April 4, 1970, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 307–15. Reprinted in his 1992 Dignity and Practical Reason in Kant’s Moral Theory, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 58–66. (Scholar)
• –––, 2020, “Ideals of Appreciation and Expressions of Respect,” in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Disability, Adam Cureton and David Wasserman (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 363–379. (Scholar)
• Hogan, Desmond, 2009, “Noumenal Affection,” The Philosophical Review, 118(4): 501–32. (Scholar)
• Holtman, Sarah, 2018, “Beneficence and Disability,” in Disability in Practice: Attitudes, Policies, and Relationships, Adam Cureton and Thomas E. Hill, Jr. (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 33–49. (Scholar)
• Hudson, Hud, 1994, Kant’s Compatibilism, Ithica: Cornell University Press. (Scholar)
• Hussain, Nadeem & Shaw, Nishi, 2013, “Meta–ethics and its Discontents: A Case–study of Korsgaard,” in C. Bagnoli (ed.), Constructivism in Ethics, New York: Cambridge University Press, 82–107. (Scholar)
• Johnson, Robert N., 1996, “Kant’s Conception of Merit,” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 77: 313–37 (Scholar)
• –––, 2007, “Value and Autonomy in Kantian Ethics,” in Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Vol. 2, R. Shafer-Landau (ed.), New York: Oxford University Press, 133–48. (Scholar)
• –––, 2008, “Was Kant a Virtue Ethicist?,” in Kant’s Ethics of Virtue, M. Betzler (ed.), Berlin: DeGruyter, 61–76. (Scholar)
• –––, 2011, Self-Improvement: An Essay in Kantian Ethics, New York: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Kain, Patrick, 2004, “Self-Legislation in Kant’s Moral Philosophy,” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, 86(3): 257–306. (Scholar)
• –––, 2009, “Kant’s Defense of Human Moral Status,” Journal of the History of Philosophy, 47(1): 59–101. (Scholar)
• Kittay, Eva, 2005, “At the Margins of Moral Personhood,” Ethics, 116(1): 100–131. (Scholar)
• Kohl, Markus, 2016, “Kant on Idealism, Freedom, and Standpoints,” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, 98(1): 21–54. (Scholar)
• Korsgaard, Christine, 1996, Creating the Kingdom of ends, New York: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 1996, The Sources of Normativity, O. O’Neill (ed.), New York: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2008, The Constitution of Agency: Essays on Practical Reason and Moral Psychology, New York: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2020, Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Langton, Rae, 2007, “Objective and Unconditioned Value,” The Philosophical Review, 116(2): 157–185. (Scholar)
• Louden, Robert, 2000, Kant’s Impure Ethics, New York: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• O’Neill, Onora, 1975, Acting on Principle, New York: Columbia University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 1989, Constructions of Reason, New York: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 1996, Towards Justice and Virtue, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Paton, H. J. , 1947, The Categorical Imperative: A Study in Kant’s Moral Philosophy, London: Hutchinson’s University Library. (Scholar)
• Rawls, John, 1971, A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 1980, “Kantian Constructivism in Moral Theory,” Journal of Philosophy, 77: 515–72. Reprinted in Rawls, John, 1999, Collected Papers, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 303–358. (Scholar)
• –––, 1989, “Themes in Kant’s Moral Philosophy,” in Kant’s Transcendental Deductions, E. Förster (ed.), Stanford: Stanford University Press, 81–113. (Scholar)
• –––, 2000, Lectures in the History of Moral Philosophy, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Scholar)
• Reath, Andrews, 2006, Agency and Autonomy in Kant’s Moral Theory, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2015, “Did Kant Hold that Rational Volition is Sub Ratione Boni?,” in Mark Timmons & Robert Johnson (eds.), Reason, Value, and Respect: Kantian Themes from the Philosophy of Thomas E Hill, Jr., New York: Oxford University Press, 232–55. (Scholar)
• –––, 1994, “Legislating the Moral Law,” Nôus, 28(4): 435–464. (Scholar)
• Rippon, Simon, 2014, “Were Kant’s Hypothetical Imperatives Wide-Scope Oughts?,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 92(4): 783–788. (Scholar)
• Ross, W. D., 1954, Kant’s Ethical Theory, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Scholar)
• Schapiro, Tamar, 1999, “What Is a Child?” Ethics, 109(4): 715–738. (Scholar)
• Schmucker, Josef, 1961, Die Ursprünge der Ethik Kants, Meisenheim am Glan: Anton Hain. (Scholar)
• Schneewind, J. B. , 2009, “Kant Against the ‘spurious principles of morality’,” in J. Timmermann (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 1996, “Kant and Stoic Ethics,” in S. Engstrom and J. Whiting (eds.), Aristotle, Kant, and the Stoics: Rethinking Happiness and Duty, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 285–301. (Scholar)
• Schroeder, Mark, 2005, “The Hypothetical Imperative?,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 83(3): 357–372. (Scholar)
• Sensen, Oliver, 2013, “Kant’s Constructivism” in C. Bagnoli (ed.), Constructivism in Ethics, New York: Cambridge University Press, 63–81. (Scholar)
• –––, 2011, “Kant on Duties Toward Others From Respect (TL 37–44),” in Andreas Trampota, Oliver Sensen and Jens Timmermann (eds.), Kant’s “Tugendlehre”: A Commentary, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 343–364. (Scholar)
• –––, 2011, Kant on Human Dignity, Berlin, New York: de Gruyter. (Scholar)
• –––, 2018, “Respect for Human Beings with Intellectual Disabilities,” in Disability in Practice: Attitudes, Policies, and Relationships, Adam Cureton and Thomas E. Hill, Jr. (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 72–89. (Scholar)
• Sherman, Nancy, 1998, Making a Necessity of Virtue, New York: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Stohr, Karen, 2018, “Pretending Not to Notice: Respect, Attention, and Disability,” in Disability in Practice: Attitudes, Policies, and Relationships, Adam Cureton and Thomas E. Hill, Jr. (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 50–71. (Scholar)
• Sullivan, Roger J., 1989, Immanuel Kant’s Moral Theory, New York: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Sussman, David, 2001, The Idea of Humanity: Anthropology and Anthroponomy in Kant’s Ethics, New York: Routledge. (Scholar)
• –––, 2018, “Respect, Regret, and Reproductive Choice,” in Disability in Practice: Attitudes, Policies and Relationships, Adam Cureton and Thomas E. Hill Jr. (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 99–114. (Scholar)
• Surprenant, Chris, 2014, Kant and the Cultivation of Virtue, New York: Routledge. (Scholar)
• Timmons, Mark (ed.), 2002, Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals: Interpretative Essays, New York: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Velleman, J. David, 2015, Beyond Price: Essays on Birth and Death, Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. (Scholar)
• Vorhaus, John, 2020, “Respect, Identification and Profound Cognitive Impairment,” in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Disability, Adam Cureton and David Wasserman (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 399–415. (Scholar)
• Wolff, Robert Paul (ed.), 1967, Kant: A Collection of Critical Essays, Garden City, New York: Doubleday. (Scholar)
• ––– (ed.), 1969, Kant’s Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals: Text and Commentary, Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill. (Scholar)
• Wood, Allen, 1970, Kant’s Moral Religion, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 1998, “Kant on Duties Regarding Nonrational Nature,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society (Supplementary Volume), 72: 189–228. (Scholar)
• –––, 1999, Kant’s Ethical Thought, New York: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2007, Kantian Ethics, New York: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)