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Kant’s Doctrine of Virtue
 OX F O R D G U I D E S T O P H I L O S O P H Y

Series Editors
Rebecca Copenhaver, Lewis and Clark College
Christopher Shields, University of Notre Dame
Mark Timmons, University of Arizona

Advisory Board
Michael Beaney, Ursula Coope, Karen Detlefsen, Lisa Downing,
Tom Hurka, Pauline Kleingeld, Robert Pasnau, Dominik Perler,
Houston Smit, Allen Wood

Oxford Guides to Philosophy presents concise introductions to the most

important primary texts in the history of philosophy. Written by top
scholars, the volumes in the series are designed to present up-to-date
scholarship in an accessible manner, in order to guide readers through
these challenging texts.

Anscombe’s Intention: A Guide

John Schwenkler
Kant’s Doctrine of Virtue: A Guide
Mark Timmons
Kant’s Doctrine
of Virtue
A Guide

MARK TIMMONS

1
 3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-​in-​Publication Data

Names: Timmons, Mark, 1951– author.
Title: Kant’s Doctrine of virtue : a guide / Mark Timmons.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020052410 (print) | LCCN 2020052411 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190939229 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190939236 (paperback) |
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Subjects: LCSH: Kant, Immanuel, 1724–1804. Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der
Tugendlehre. | Kant, Immanuel, 1724–1804—Criticism and interpretation. |
Virtue. | Ethics. | Metaphysics.
Classification: LCC B2785.5.Z7 T56 2021 (print) |
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DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780190939229.001.0001

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For Betsy
 Preface

This book, included in the Oxford Guides series, is a concise guide to

Kant’s last publication in ethics, Part II of the 1797 The Metaphysics of
Morals, The Doctrine of Virtue. The Metaphysics of Morals comes after
the two foundational works, the 1785 Groundwork of the Metaphysics
of Morals and the 1788 Critique of Practical Reason and represents
Kant’s exposition and defense of his normative doctrine of morals.
Part I, The Doctrine of Right, contains Kant’s legal and political philos-
ophy, while Part II is his ethical theory. The Doctrine of Virtue is rela-
tively short, only 116 pages as it appears in volume VI of the Academy
edition of Kant’s works. Because it is short and yet intended to cover
the science of ethics (on Kant’s understanding of “science”), it moves
rapidly over much ground, challenging any reader’s understanding
of it. The Metaphysics of Morals includes a general introduction that
is crucial for understanding the entire book. In it, Kant explains what
a metaphysics of morals is, relates the idea of moral law to the faculties
of the human mind, reviews core concepts that figure in such a meta-
physics, and explains the basis of the division between its two parts.
Given, then, its importance for understanding The Doctrine of Virtue,
this guide also includes chapters devoted to it.
I have written the guide to be read alongside Kant’s text. My hope
is that it will help readers navigate the complexity of Kant’s thought,
due in part to his rich philosophical vocabulary expressing concepts
he needed to employ to articulate his thought. To help readers with
this vocabulary, I have included a Guide to Terminology. Throughout
I make occasional contact with some of the ever-​expanding secondary
literature on Kant’s ethics. However, given the aim of the series, I have
largely refrained from explicitly engaging this literature. I do, though,
point readers to select secondary works in the Further Reading
sections at the end of each chapter. In the book’s conclusion I review
elements of Kant’s doctrine of virtue, calling attention to its features
that distinguish it from others and briefly indicate its continuing influ-
ence on normative ethics.
 Acknowledgments

Thanks to the following students who read an early draft of this book
that I used along with teaching The Doctrine of Virtue in my fall 2018
graduate seminar on Kant’s ethics: Gavriel Aryah, Josh Cangelosi,
Cristos Chuffe, Max Kramer, Robert Lazo, Andrew Lichter, Shuai Liu,
Xihe Ouyang, Susan Puls, Will Schumacher, Jacquelyn Sideris, Robert
Wallace, Justin Westbrook, and Ke Zhang. A special thanks to Santiago
(“Santi”) de Jesus Sanchez Borboa, who contributed substantially to
the seminar and for the many helpful conversations we’ve had about
parts of this book.
I made many improvements throughout the book thanks to Adam
Cureton’s thoughtful comments and suggestions on the book’s penul-
timate draft, saving me from some mistakes and encouraging me to
elaborate certain themes and arguments.
Robert Audi read and commented on the penultimate manuscript
and offered many helpful suggestions for improving the book’s content.
Over the years I have greatly benefitted from discussions with my
colleague Houston Smit on many of the topics covered in this book.
Thanks finally to Peter Ohlin, editor at Oxford University Press, and
to my co-​editors of this series, Becko Copenhaver and Chris Shields,
for their help and encouragement.
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 Abbreviations for Kant’s Works

All references to Kant’s work include the volume number (in roman
numerals) followed by the page number of the German Academy edi-
tion of Kant’s works: Immanuel Kants gesmmelte Schriften, edited by the
Königlich Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin: Walter
de Gruyter, 1900–​).
The Academy edition page numbers are included in the margins of
most English language translations, including the Cambridge Edition
series of the Works of Immanuel Kant listed here. The following
abbreviations are used throughout.
Anth Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, trans. R. B.
Louden (2006)
CJ Critique of the Power of Judgment, trans. P. Guyer and
E. Matthews (2000)
Col Moral Philosophy from the Lectures of Professor Kant, Winter
Semester 1784–​85, Georg Ludwig Collins, ed., included in
Lectures on Ethics, trans. P. Heath (1997)
CprR Critique of Practical Reason, trans. M. J. Gregor (1996)
CpuR Critique of Pure Reason, trans. P. Guyer and A. Wood (1998)
DR Doctrine of Right, part I of the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. M. J.
Gregor (1996)
DrMM Drafts for the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. K. R. Westphal
in F. Rauscher, ed., Lectures and Drafts on Practical
Philosophy (2016)
DV Doctrine of Virtue, Part II of the Metaphysics of Morals, trans.
J. Timmermann and J. Grenberg (forthcoming).
EMH Essay on the Maladies of the Head, trans. R. B. Louden (2007)
G Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. M. J. Gregor
and J. Timmermann (2011)
JL Jäsche Logic, trans. J. M. Young (1992)
LA Lectures on Anthropology, trans. R. B. Clewis, R. B. Louden, C. F.
Munzel, and A. W. Wood (2012)
xiv Abbreviations for Kant’s Works

LM Lectures on Metaphysics, trans. K. Ameriks and

S. Naragon (1997)
MFNS Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science, trans.
M. Friedman (2004)
MM Introduction to The Metaphysics of Morals, trans. M. J.
Gregor (1996)
MPT “On the Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials,” trans. A. W.
Wood (1996)
NF Notes and Fragments, trans. C. Bowman, P. Guyer, and
F. Rauscher (2005)
Ped Lectures on Pedagogy, trans. R. B. Louden (2006)
R Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, trans. G. di
Giovanni (revised edition, 2018)
TP “On the Common Saying: That May Be Correct in Theory, But
It Is of No Use in Practice,” trans. M. J. Gregor (1996)
Vig Notes on the Lectures of Mr. Kant on the Metaphysics of Morals,
begun October 14, 1793, Johann Friedrich Vigilantius, ed.,
included in Lectures on Ethics, trans. P. Heath (1997)
 Note on Translations

For The Doctrine of Virtue (DV), I am using the new English trans-
lation by Jens Timmermann and Jeanine Grenberg that includes the
German and English side by side.
James W. Ellington’s Ethical Philosophy by Hackett Publishing Co.,
besides his translation of DV, also includes translation of the general
introduction to The Metaphysics of Morals, which I cover in Part II of
this guide. (This book also includes translations of Kant’s Groundwork
and the essay “On a Supposed Right to Lie.”)
 1
Life and Work

Immanuel Kant was born in 1724 in Königsberg, the capital of East

Prussia, a bustling harbor city located on the Baltic Sea, where he
spent most of his life.1 His parents were devout Pietists, a form of
Protestantism that emphasized “independent Bible study, personal de-
votion, the priesthood of the laity, and a practical faith issuing in acts
of charity.”2 About his parents Kant wrote in a letter: “my two parents
(from the class of tradesmen) were perfectly honest, morally decent,
and orderly. . . . Moreover, they gave me an education that could not
have been better when considered from the moral point of view.”3
He entered the University of Königsberg in 1740 at the age of seventeen,
where he studied philosophy and natural science. His father died in
1746, and without finances to continue his studies Kant earned money
as a private tutor, returning to the university in 1754, completing his
degree the following year. It was not until 1770 at the age of forty-​six
that Kant finally obtained a professorship of logic and metaphysics at
the University of Königsberg, where he taught until his retirement in
1797. After becoming ill in October 1803, Kant died on February 12,
1804, just shy of his eightieth birthday.
Some of Kant’s earliest writings address topics in physical science,
including the 1755 General History and Theory of the Heavens, in
which he speculated that the solar system could have evolved entirely
by mechanical means, and so without divine intervention. This same
idea was later put forth independently in 1796 by French philosopher
Pierre-​Simon Laplace (1749–​1827), and has become known as the
Kant-​Laplace nebular hypothesis. The decade of Kant’s life in the 1770s

1 Before World War II, Prussia was part of Germany; after the war, it was divided be-

tween Poland and the Soviet Union. Kant’s city of birth is now Kaliningrad, Russia.
2 Kuehn 2001: 34.
3 Quoted in Kuehn 2001: 31.

Kant’s Doctrine of Virtue. Mark Timmons, Oxford University Press (2021). © Oxford University Press.
DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780190939229.003.0001
4 Background

is known as his “silent years” during which he published very little

while working out elements of his mature philosophy, culminating in
his 1781 Critique of Pure Reason, followed by the Critique of Practical
Reason in 1788, and finally, the Critique of the Power of Judgment in
1790. These three books (often referred to, respectively, as the first,
second, and third Critiques) comprise the major works of Kant’s so-​
called critical philosophy, which, roughly speaking, involves an ex-
amination of the character and limits of fundamental human mental
faculties as a basis for explaining the possibility of a true metaphysics
of both nature and morals. The first Critique investigates the nature
and limits of human theoretical cognition—​cognition of what is—​
arguing against traditional “dogmatic metaphysics” that sought cog-
nition of a supersensible realm of being. The second Critique is Kant’s
second of three major works in moral philosophy, about which more
in a moment. The third Critique provides an account of judgments of
aesthetic taste and an examination of the role of teleological thinking
in regulating the scientific investigation of the natural world.
Kant wrote three works of moral philosophy, beginning with the
1785 Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, followed by the second
Critique, and finally, toward the end of his life, the 1797 The Metaphysics
of Morals. The relatively short but exceedingly dense Groundwork
provides a foundation for a comprehensive normative moral theory by
articulating and then establishing the supreme principle of morality,
which Kant referred to as “the categorical imperative.” The second
Critique represents a systematic investigation of the foundation of mo-
rality that Kant traces to our nature as beings with free will. He also
explains how God and immortality of the soul figure in a complete
account of morality. (More on this in the next chapter.) Both are pri-
marily works in metaethics—​investigating the nature and possibility
of morality.4 The Metaphysics of Morals by contrast represents Kant’s
normative moral theory in which he sets forth and justifies a system
of duties. Part I of the book, The Doctrine of Right (DR), presents the
elements of his legal and political philosophy and features duties,

4 However, they also include some elements of Kant’s normative ethics, including

an articulation of the supreme principle of morality that he later employs in deriving a

system of moral principles in DV.
 Life and Work 5

compliance with which is susceptible to legitimate coercion from the

state or other people. In Part II, The Doctrine of Virtue (DV), the focus
of our study, Kant turns to that part of moral philosophy—​the ethics—​
concerning duties not properly subject to such coercion. These two
parts comprise Kant’s doctrine of morals: his normative theory of law,
politics, and ethics. For Kant, a philosophical doctrine of morals can
only be a metaphysics of morals.

1.1 Situating Kant’s moral philosophy

It is helpful to situate the development of Kant’s moral philosophy

against two traditions: the seventeenth-​and eighteenth-​century debate
among British philosophers between rationalists and sentimentalists
over the foundation of morality, as well as the works of select German
philosophers who fell into one of these two camps. Very roughly
speaking, the British rationalists, including Ralph Cudworth (1617–​
1688), Samuel Clarke (1675–​1729), and others, held that it is possible
to know fundamental ethical principles on the sole basis of reason,
and thus know them a priori without needing to conduct scientific
experiments, use our five senses, or otherwise experience them. They
drew an analogy between moral and mathematical judgments.5 In op-
position to this view, the British sentimentalists, including Anthony
Ashley Cooper, the third Earl of Shaftsbury (1671–​1713), Francis
Hutcheson (1694–​1746) and David Hume (1711–​1776), held that
moral judgments are analogous to judgments of beauty in that senti-
ment (feeling) is the basis for both. For instance, based on his analysis
of moral thought, David Hume famously concluded, “Morality, there-
fore, is more properly felt than judg’d of ” (1739: 470).
Early in his career, Kant expressed sympathy toward the British sen-
timentalist school, writing in an announcement for a course he was
to teach in winter semester 1765–​66, “The attempts of Shaftesbury,
Hutcheson, and Hume although incomplete and defective, have

5 In Germany during Kant’s time, a perfectionist version of rationalism was defended

by Christian Wolff (1679–​1754) and others, largely inspired by the earlier work of
Leibniz (1646–​1716).
6 Background

nonetheless penetrated furthest in the search for the fundamental

principle of morality.”6 However, two decades later, and by the time
Kant writes the 1785 Groundwork, he has developed a distinctive form
of rationalism, differing significantly from his rationalist predecessors.

1.2 History and significance of The Doctrine

of Virtue

As early as 1767, Kant wrote to a former student (Johann Gottfried

Herder) that he hoped to complete work on a metaphysics of morals
in the following year. However, writing the book was delayed by var-
ious things, including Kant’s felt need to first complete other philo-
sophical projects, including the Groundwork and the second Critique.
According to one scholar,7 it is likely that Kant did not begin the actual
writing of The Metaphysics of Morals until 1795. Its eventual publica-
tion was delayed for thirty years after mentioning the project to Herder.
DV is critical for understanding Kant’s moral philosophy for sev-
eral reasons. First, it presents a side of his moral philosophy—​a nor-
mative ethical theory set forth systematically—​not found in the two
earlier works in moral philosophy. One gets a glimpse of this system
from the Groundwork’s four sample applications of the supreme prin-
ciple of morality to the cases of suicide, false promises, helping others,
and self-​perfection. However, in DV we find a fully worked out system
of midlevel duties and associated virtues divided into duties to one-
self and duties to others, each of these divisions further subdivided.
Second, as a treatise about virtue it focuses on one’s inner moral life—​
one’s attitudes and motivations in complying with duty and thus with
moral character. This aspect of the book combats the impression
one might get from the Groundwork and second Critique that Kant’s
moral philosophy is overly abstract and does not connect with ordi-
nary moral experience and concrete moral problems. Third, DV also
discusses topics not treated in other works, including Kant’s distinctive

6 This announcement is contained in volume 2, pages 311–​12 of the Academy edition

of Kant’s works.
7 Kuehn 2010.
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 Life and Work 7

conceptions of conscience and moral friendship. A complete moral

philosophy addresses metaethical questions about the foundation
of morality, as well as general normative questions about what one
ought to do and what sort of person to be. In addressing these latter
questions, DV (together with [DR]) represent the completion of Kant’s
moral philosophy.
DV is also not a work of mere historical significance. It is a contri-
bution to normative ethical theory, especially as it compares to other
approaches, including forms of consequentialism, contemporary
virtue ethics, natural law theory, the ethics of prima facie duty, and
religious ethics. These comparisons will emerge as we proceed and
are briefly summarized in the book’s conclusion as well as how Kant’s
ethics is relevant to contemporary moral problems

1.3 Reading Kant

As many readers know, reading Kant is challenging, and understanding

his writings is often a slow and painstaking process. Part of the chal-
lenge is mastering Kant’s technical vocabulary, which, as I mentioned
in the Preface, he needed to express his complex thought. I hope this
book, including the Guide to Terminology, helps overcome this chal-
lenge and others. I have just been touting some of DV’s virtues, how-
ever, it has certain shortcomings as a philosophical treatise. It moves
rapidly over many topics, some of its arguments are unclear, others are
unconvincing, while sometimes we don’t find arguments for claims
that need support. Perhaps these shortcomings are due to the fact the
Kant wrote the book toward the end of his life when he might not have
been at the height of his mental powers. Still, I stand by my positive
remarks about the book’s importance, which I hope to partly if not
fully vindicate with this guide.

1.4 Why the general introduction?

Let me emphasize the importance of the general introduction to the

entire Metaphysics of Morals and explain why I spend time covering it.
8 Background

In it, Kant explains what a metaphysics of morals is and why there must
be one. Reading DV without this background would likely be puzzling,
since contemporary philosophy treats metaphysics as exclusively con-
cerned with the most fundamental constituents of what is and not what
we are required to do and the kind of person to be. Normative ethical
theory that deals with these issues is thus not taken to be part of met-
aphysics. Yet, Kant has his own conception of the field of metaphysics
which concerns the nature and possibility of synthetic a priori cogni-
tion, including cognition of basic moral principles, material covered in
­chapter 3. Furthermore, Kant’s normative ethical theory presupposes
familiarity with the concepts and doctrines that Kant only summarizes
in the general introduction. This includes how moral laws are related
to basic mental faculties of human beings (the focus of c­ hapter 4) and
articulation of such basic ethical concepts as obligation, duty, and
moral worth, the focus of ­chapter 5. Kant’s treatment of these topics
in the general introduction is dense and requires elaboration to be ad-
equately understood; hence, the need for three chapters devoted to it.

1.5 Looking ahead

This guide, written so that it can be read along with Kant’s text, has
five parts:

Part I: Background (this chapter and the next). Chapter 2 acquaints

some readers and reminds others of some basic theses of Kant’s
metaphysics and epistemology as a lead-​in to his mature moral
philosophy. It includes remarks about the roles of freedom, God,
and immortality of the soul in Kant’s ethical theorizing. Of im-
portance for our study is Kant’s distinction between human
beings as members of the sensible (phenomenal) world and
human beings as members of an intelligible (noumenal) world.
Part II: General Introduction to The Metaphysics of Morals
(­chapters 3–​5). Although The Doctrine of Virtue (DV) is the
focus of this study, as I’ve just explained, material from the ge-
neral introduction to the entire Metaphysics of Morals (MM) is
crucial background for understanding DV.
 Life and Work 9

Part III: Introduction to The Doctrine of Virtue (­chapters 6–​9).

Besides the general introduction to MM, Kant wrote dedi-
cated introductions to The Doctrine of Right and The Doctrine of
Virtue. The introduction to DV comprises eighteen sections and
includes material that Kant thought essential for understanding
his theory of virtue, to which I have devoted four chapters.
Part IV: The Doctrine of Elements (­chapters 10–​15). The Elements
is where Kant spells out and defends his system of duties of
virtue that constitutes his normative ethical theory. Here we find
various divisions, the most fundamental between duties to one-
self and duties to others. Kant fittingly concludes his discussion
of duties to others with remarks about friendship.
Part V: The Doctrine of Methods of Ethics and Conclusion
(­chapter 16). Finally, the Methods concerns moral education
and the practice of virtue, outlining the practical import of
Kant’s normative ethical theory. The conclusion explains why
ethics, as a science, does not include religion as a doctrine of
duties to God.
Concluding Reflections on Kant’s Doctrine of Virtue. This brief
chapter calls attention to some of the more salient features of
Kant’s ethical theory, comparing it to others, and suggesting
topics for further study.

LL

In his years as a teacher, Kant taught ethics close to thirty times.

What survives from some of those courses are student notes. A set
of notes from a course offered winter semester 1784–​85 is attributed
to Georg Collins and is referred to as the Collins notes. Another set
(the Vigilantius notes) is attributed to Johann Vigilantius, a lawyer
and friend of Kant’s whose notes are from a course on the metaphysics
of morals Kant taught in 1793–​94. Compared to Kant’s Metaphysics
of Morals, the student lecture notes sometimes contain far richer
discussions of many of the topics covered in Kant’s own writings than
in his published works. This is particularly true of the various duties
and associated virtues that comprise Kant’s normative ethical theory.
Besides the Groundwork and second Critique, two other important
10 Background

sources for understanding Kant’s theory of virtue are his 1793 Religion
within the Boundaries of Mere Reason and the 1798 Anthropology from
a Pragmatic Point of View. These works and some others will figure
in my exposition and elaboration of Kant’s doctrine of virtue in the
chapters to follow.

Further reading
• For a concise overview of Kant’s life and work, see Guyer 2021.
• Kuehn 2001 is an extensive, authoritative biography.
 2
Philosophical Background

Kant’s ethical theory is embedded in his epistemology and metaphysics.

Before beginning our study of his ethics, then, we should acquaint our-
selves with some of these views, relating them to key elements of Kant’s
ethics—​freedom, the moral law, and the highest good.

2.1 The nature and limits of human

theoretical cognition

Kant’s 1781 masterpiece, The Critique of Pure Reason (CpuR), contains

a detailed account of the nature and limits of human theoretical cogni-
tion. This account claims to provide a priori principles that are inherent
in our capacity for such cognition. Theoretical cognition (explained
further in the next chapter) is cognition of what is. By appeal to these
a priori principles, Kant argues that we can have theoretical cognition
only of things making up the natural world. Our theoretical cognition
of things is limited to properties they have, and the changes they un-
dergo, insofar as they are subject to the laws that govern and explain
what goes on in nature. All theoretical cognition of things comes
about, on Kant’s account, through the distinct operations of two fun-
damental capacities: sensibility and understanding.
Sensibility, which includes the five senses of sight, hearing, touch,
taste, and smell, is the capacity to receive representations through the
way in which one is affected by things.1 Every sensibility has a “form” in
which representations that are presented to us must be ordered to pro-
vide experience. Our sensibility has two forms: space and time. Space
is the form of our outer sense through which we order things outside

1 Sensibility for Kant also includes imagination.

Kant’s Doctrine of Virtue. Mark Timmons, Oxford University Press (2021). © Oxford University Press.
DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780190939229.003.0002
12 Background

us. Time is the form of our inner sense whereby the representations
we are presented with are temporally ordered. Through the operation
of understanding, one subsumes what is given in sensibility under
basic concepts including <cause> and <effect> yielding experience of
objects. In his masterwork, Kant explains the operations of sensibility
and understanding and how, together, they produce theoretical cogni-
tion of things. These details are not our concern. The important point
for now is that the forms of space and time are contributed by us which,
together with how we are affected by the senses, yields experience. Our
theoretical cognition based on such experience is therefore limited to
things as they appear to us and not as they are in themselves. Thus,
Kant distinguishes appearances from things in themselves—​arguably, a
metaphysical distinction. Let us consider this further.
It is common to distinguish what merely appears to be the case from
what really is the case—​between appearance and reality. For example,
as one drives along a highway, there appears to be a pool of water ahead
on the road, but it turns out that (in reality) there is no water, it is only,
as we say, an appearance of water—​a mirage. Importantly, Kant’s con-
trast between appearances and things in themselves is not the same
as the appearance/​reality distinction just mentioned. For Kant, theo-
retical cognition yields knowledge of an objectively existing world of
objects and their properties. However, it is knowledge of the world as
it appears to human beings given their form of sensibility. It is pos-
sible, according to Kant, for there to be creatures that have a completely
different sensibility or no sensibility at all (as in God’s purely discur-
sive understanding) and so do not experience objects as situated in
space and time, despite the fact that we are not able to imagine what
such experiences would be like. Kant uses various terms in referring
to the world as we experience it, including: ‘phenomenal world’ and
‘sensible world.’ For Kant all appearances as elements of the sensible
world (events, objects, and their properties) are subject to causal
explanation—​in particular, that every event in time is the inevitable
causal result of previous events together with the laws of nature that
relate them.
In limiting our theoretical cognition of things to objects (events,
properties) of experiences possible for us, and denying any theoret-
ical cognition of things as they are in themselves, Kant stresses that we
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