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''Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals'' ((ドイツ語:Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten); 1785; also known as the ''Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals'', ''Grounding of the Metaphysics of Morals'' and the ''Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals'') is the first of Immanuel Kant's mature works on moral philosophy and remains one of the most influential in the field. Kant conceives his investigation as a work of foundational ethics—one that clears the ground for future research by explaining the core concepts and principles of moral theory and showing that they are normative for rational agents. Kant aspires to nothing less than this: to lay bare the fundamental principle of morality and show that it applies to us. In the text, Kant provides a groundbreaking argument that the rightness of an action is determined by the character of the principle that a person chooses to act upon. Kant thus stands in stark contrast to the moral sense theories and teleological moral theories that dominated moral philosophy at the time he was writing. The ''Groundwork'' is broken into a preface, followed by three sections. Kant's argument works from common reason up to the supreme unconditional law, in order to identify its existence. He then works backwards from there to prove the relevance and weight of the moral law. The third and final section of the book is famously obscure, and it is partly because of this that Kant later, in 1788, decided to publish the ''Critique of Practical Reason''. == Preface == In the preface to the ''Groundwork'' Kant motivates the need for pure moral philosophy and makes some preliminary remarks to situate his project and explain his method of investigation. Kant opens the preface with an affirmation of the ancient Greek idea of a threefold division of philosophy into logic, physics, and ethics. Logic is purely formal—it deals only with the form of thought itself, not with any particular objects. Physics and ethics, on the other hand, deal with particular objects: physics is concerned with the laws of nature, ethics with the laws of freedom. Additionally, logic is an ''a priori'' discipline, ''i.e''., logical truths do not depend on any particular experience for their justification. By contrast, physics and ethics are mixed disciplines, containing empirical and non-empirical parts. The empirical part of physics deals with contingently true phenomena, like what kind of physical entities there are and the relations in which they stand; the non-empirical part deals with fundamental concepts like space, time, and matter. Similarly, ethics contains an empirical part, which deals with the question of what—given the contingencies of human nature—tends to promote human welfare, and a non-empirical part, which is concerned with an ''a priori'' investigation into the nature and substance of morality. Because it is ''a priori'' Kant calls this latter, non-empirical part of ethics “metaphysics of morals.” It corresponds to the non-empirical part of physics, which Kant calls “metaphysics of nature.” Kant proceeds to motivate the need for the special sort of inquiry he calls a metaphysics of morals: “That there must be such a philosophy is evident from the common idea of duty and of moral laws.” The moral law must “carry with it absolute necessity.” (4:389) The content and the bindingness of the moral law, in other words, do not vary according to the particularities of agents or their circumstances. Given that the moral law, if it exists, is universal and necessary, the only appropriate means to investigate it is through ''a priori'' rational reflection. Thus, a correct theoretical understanding of morality requires a metaphysics of morals. Kant thinks that until we have completed this sort of investigation, “morals themselves are liable to all kinds of corruption” because the “guide and supreme norm for correctly estimating them are missing.” A fully specified account of the moral law will guard against the errors and rationalization to which human moral reasoning is prone. (4:390) The search for the supreme principle of morality—the antidote to confusion in the moral sphere—will occupy Kant for the first two chapters of the ''Groundwork''. In essence, Kant’s remarks in the preface prepare the reader for the thrust of the ideas he goes on to develop in the ''Groundwork. ''The purpose of the ''Groundwork'' is to prepare a foundation for moral theory. Because Kant believes that any fact which is grounded in empirical knowledge must be contingent, he can only derive the necessity that the moral law requires from ''a priori ''reasoning. It is with this significance of necessity in mind that the ''Groundwork'' attempts to establish a pure (''a priori'') ethics. Such an ethics explains the possibility of a moral law and locates what Kant calls the “supreme principle of morality.” The aim of the following sections of the ''Groundwork'' is to explain what the moral law would have to be like if it existed and to show that, in fact, it exists and is authoritative for us. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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