Ethics Vindicated: Kant's Transcendental Legitimation of Moral Discourse

by Ermanno Bencivenga

Can we regard ourselves as having free will? What is the place of values in a world of facts? What grounds the authority of moral injunctions, and why should we care about them? Unless we provide satisfactory answers to these questions, ethics has no credible status and is likely to be subsumed by psychology, history, or rational decision theory. According to Ermanno Bencivenga, this outcome is both common and regrettable.

Bencivenga points to Immanuel Kant for the solution. Kant's philosophy is a sustained, bold, and successful effort aiming at offering us the answers we need. Ethics Vindicated is a clear and thorough account of this effort that builds on Bencivenga's previous interpretation of transcendental philosophy (as articulated in his Kant's Copernican Revolution ) and draws on the entire Kantian corpus.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Ermanno Bencivenga (Reggio Calabria, 1950) è un filosofo e saggista italiano. Dopo la laurea in filosofia alla Statale di Milano, Bencivenga ha lasciato presto l'Italia, trasferendosi prima in Canada per gli studi di dottorato e poi negli Stati Uniti, dove ha intrapreso la sua carriera accademica insegnando, dal 1979, all'Università della California a Irvine.

Reviews

[Bttaylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is probably the best, most philosophically interesting, well written book on Kant's moral philosphy I have read. I read it as freshman in college after first learning about Kant's ethical theory in an intro to ethics course. Its a very good book for setting out why Kant's moral philosophy, all stereotypes aside, has way more depth, plausibility and appeal than it sometimes gets credit for without being overally technical and staying accessible.