Jens Timmermann
Biographic Data
| ID | 4489038 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jens Timmermann |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jens |
| FAMILY NAME | Timmermann |
| SIGNATURE | TIMMERMANN J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of St Andrews |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4155-3288 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 43 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 7 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Quandary of Infanticide in Kant’s ‘Doctrine of Right’
The aim of this paper is to settle the controversy around Kant’s notorious discussion of maternal infanticide in the ‘Doctrine of Right’ of 1797. How should a state punish an unmarried mother who has killed her newborn infant? The text (at DoR VI 335–37) is obscure. Three readings have been defended in the literature: 1. Lenience. Maternal infanticide does not count as murder; so, capital punishment is inappropriate. On this view, the child does …
Kant's Will at the Crossroads: An Essay on the Failings of Practical Rationality
What happens when human beings fail to do as reason bids? This book is an attempt to address this age-old question within Kant’s mature practical philosophy, i.e. the practical philosophy that emerged with the watershed discovery of autonomy in the mid-1780s. As always, Kant is good for a surprise. There is, it is argued, not one answer but two: he advocates Socratic intellectualism in the realm of prudence whilst defending an anti-intellectualis…
Emerging Autonomy: Dealing with the Inadequacies of the “Canon” of the Critique of Pure Reason (1781)
Autonomy, Progress and Virtue: Why Kant has Nothing to Fear from the Overdemandingness Objection
Is Kant’s ethical theory too demanding? Do its commands ask too much of us, either by calling for self-sacrifice on particular occasions, or by pervading our lives to the extent that there is no room for permissible action? In this article, I argue that Kant’s ethics is very demanding, but not excessively so. The notion of ‘latitude’ (the idea that wide duty admits of ‘exceptions’) does not help. But we need to bear in mind (i) that moral laws ar…
The Law and the Good. Kant’s Paradox of Method
This article discusses the priority of the moral law (over the notion of value) in Kant's ethics, with a particular focus on the second chapter of the Analytic of the 1788 "Critique of Practical Reason"
The Cambridge History of Moral Philosophy
With fifty-four chapters charting the development of moral philosophy in the Western world, this volume examines the key thinkers and texts and their influence on the history of moral thought from the pre-Socratics to the present day. Topics including Epicureanism, humanism, Jewish and Arabic thought, perfectionism, pragmatism, idealism and intuitionism are all explored, as are figures including Aristotle, Boethius, Spinoza, Hobbes, Hume, Kant, H…
Mrongovius II: A supplement to theGroundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
The Cambridge Companion to Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism, the approach to ethics based on the maximization of overall well-being, continues to have great traction in moral philosophy and political thought. This Companion offers a systematic exploration of its history, themes, and applications. First, it traces the origins and development of utilitarianism via the work of Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Henry Sidgwick, and others. The volume then explores issues in the formulation of ut…
"Kant's "Tugendlehre: A Comprehensive Commentary
In recent years there has been renewed interest in the Doctrine of Virtue, the ethical part of Kant's late systematic treatise on moral philosophy, the Metaphysics of Morals. The present volume responds to these demands. Following a series of research workshops, 18 scholars from Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States provide a seamless commentary on the Doctrine of Virtue, discussing topics such as suicide, truthfulness, moral perfection, …
Autonomy and moral regard for ends
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Immanuel Kant: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A German–English edition
Published in 1785, the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals is one of the most powerful texts in the history of ethical thought. In this book, Immanuel Kant formulates and justifies a supreme principle of morality that issues universal and unconditional moral commands. These commands receive their normative force from the fact that rational agents autonomously impose the moral law upon themselves. As such, they are laws of freedom. This volume…
Immanuel Kant: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A German–English edition
Published in 1785, the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals is one of the most powerful texts in the history of ethical thought. In this book, Immanuel Kant formulates and justifies a supreme principle of morality that issues universal and unconditional moral commands. These commands receive their normative force from the fact that rational agents autonomously impose the moral law upon themselves. As such, they are laws of freedom. This volume…
Kant's Critique of Practical Reason: A Critical Guide
The Critique of Practical Reason is the second of Kant's three Critiques, and his second work in moral theory after the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Its systematic account of the authority of moral principles grounded in human autonomy unfolds Kant's considered views on morality and provides the keystone to his philosophical system. The essays in this volume shed light on the principal arguments of the second Critique and explore thei…
Two conceptions of compatibilism in the Critical Elucidation
The 'Critical Elucidation of the Analytic of Pure Practical Reason' develops two distinctive conceptions of how freedom of choice and causal determinism may be reconciled. These two conceptions of freedom of choice correspond to a distinction between what Kant calls 'psychological' and what he calls 'transcendental freedom'. The Critical Elucidation presents the argument of the Analytic of Pure Practical Reason as a kind of practical syllogism th…
Kant's 'Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals': A Critical Guide
Kant's 'Critique of Practical Reason': A Critical Guide
Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A Critical Guide
Kant's Grundlegung: A Reply to Dieter Schönecker
Volume 12 (2007) contains a review of my little edition- cum -commentary of Kant's Grundlegung (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2004; henceforth ‘CG’). As I am familiar with the work of the reviewer, Dieter Schönecker, most of the points mentioned did not surprise me. I was, however, taken aback by the, let us say, unhelpful manner in which they were raised. Schönecker's criticisms concern largely not ‘blunders’, ‘misinterpretations’ or ‘factua…
Kant's Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals a commentary: A Commentary
The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals is Kant's central contribution to moral philosophy, and has inspired controversy ever since it was first published in 1785. Kant champions the insights of 'common human understanding' against what he sees as the dangerous perversions of ethical theory. Morality is revealed to be a matter of human autonomy: Kant locates the source of the 'categorical imperative' within each and every human will. However,…
Value without Regress: Kant's ‘Formula of Humanity’ Revisited
Kantian Duties to the Self, Explained and Defended
The present article is an attempt to clarify the Kantian conception of duties to the self and to defend them against common objections. Kant’s thesis that all duty rests on duties to the self is shown to follow from the autonomy of the human will; and the allegation that they are impossible because the agent could always release himself from such a duty turns out to be question-begging. There is no attempt to prove that there are such duties, but…
When the Tail Wags the Dog: Animal Welfare and Indirect Duty in Kantian Ethics
Even the most sympathetic readers of Kant's moral philosophy usually disagree with him about some aspect of his theory, or some particular moral judgement. His unqualified condemnation of lying in the essay ‘On a supposed right to lie from philanthropy’ is a classical case in question, as is his strong endorsement of retributive justice and the death penalty. A third prominent source of discontent are Kant's repeated verdicts on the moral status …
Why Kant Could not Have Been a Utilitarian
In 1993, Richard Hare argued that, contrary to received opinion, Kant could have been a utilitarian. In this article, I argue that Hare was wrong. Kant's theory would not have been utilitarian or consequentialist even if his practical recommendations coincided with utilitarian commands: Kant's theory of value is essentially anti-utilitarian; there is no place for rational contradiction as the source of moral imperatives in utilitarianism; Kant wo…
Kritik der reinen Vernunft: Kritik der Reinen Vernunft
Why we cannot want our friends to be gods. Some notes on NE 1159a5‐12
1. It is a fact of common experience that friends need to share something. They must have common concerns, something they both take delight in; and it is also a fact of everyday life that if the distance between friends (we may think of 'distance' in many different ways!) has become too great and too much of this common ground is lost, friendship itself becomes more and more difficult. Some degree of equality, then, seems to be necessary for frie…
Kant's Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals a commentary: A Commentary
The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals is Kant's central contribution to moral philosophy, and has inspired controversy ever since it was first published in 1785. Kant champions the insights of 'common human understanding' against what he sees as the dangerous perversions of ethical theory. Morality is revealed to be a matter of human autonomy: Kant locates the source of the 'categorical imperative' within each and every human will. However,…
Value without Regress: Kant's ‘Formula of Humanity’ Revisited
Kantian Duties to the Self, Explained and Defended
The present article is an attempt to clarify the Kantian conception of duties to the self and to defend them against common objections. Kant’s thesis that all duty rests on duties to the self is shown to follow from the autonomy of the human will; and the allegation that they are impossible because the agent could always release himself from such a duty turns out to be question-begging. There is no attempt to prove that there are such duties, but…
Why Kant Could not Have Been a Utilitarian
In 1993, Richard Hare argued that, contrary to received opinion, Kant could have been a utilitarian. In this article, I argue that Hare was wrong. Kant's theory would not have been utilitarian or consequentialist even if his practical recommendations coincided with utilitarian commands: Kant's theory of value is essentially anti-utilitarian; there is no place for rational contradiction as the source of moral imperatives in utilitarianism; Kant wo…
Kant's Will at the Crossroads: An Essay on the Failings of Practical Rationality
What happens when human beings fail to do as reason bids? This book is an attempt to address this age-old question within Kant’s mature practical philosophy, i.e. the practical philosophy that emerged with the watershed discovery of autonomy in the mid-1780s. As always, Kant is good for a surprise. There is, it is argued, not one answer but two: he advocates Socratic intellectualism in the realm of prudence whilst defending an anti-intellectualis…
"Kant's "Tugendlehre: A Comprehensive Commentary
In recent years there has been renewed interest in the Doctrine of Virtue, the ethical part of Kant's late systematic treatise on moral philosophy, the Metaphysics of Morals. The present volume responds to these demands. Following a series of research workshops, 18 scholars from Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States provide a seamless commentary on the Doctrine of Virtue, discussing topics such as suicide, truthfulness, moral perfection, …
Why we cannot want our friends to be gods. Some notes on NE 1159a5‐12
1. It is a fact of common experience that friends need to share something. They must have common concerns, something they both take delight in; and it is also a fact of everyday life that if the distance between friends (we may think of 'distance' in many different ways!) has become too great and too much of this common ground is lost, friendship itself becomes more and more difficult. Some degree of equality, then, seems to be necessary for frie…
Kritik der reinen Vernunft: Kritik der Reinen Vernunft
When the Tail Wags the Dog: Animal Welfare and Indirect Duty in Kantian Ethics
Even the most sympathetic readers of Kant's moral philosophy usually disagree with him about some aspect of his theory, or some particular moral judgement. His unqualified condemnation of lying in the essay ‘On a supposed right to lie from philanthropy’ is a classical case in question, as is his strong endorsement of retributive justice and the death penalty. A third prominent source of discontent are Kant's repeated verdicts on the moral status …
Why Kant Could not Have Been a Utilitarian
In 1993, Richard Hare argued that, contrary to received opinion, Kant could have been a utilitarian. In this article, I argue that Hare was wrong. Kant's theory would not have been utilitarian or consequentialist even if his practical recommendations coincided with utilitarian commands: Kant's theory of value is essentially anti-utilitarian; there is no place for rational contradiction as the source of moral imperatives in utilitarianism; Kant wo…
Value without Regress: Kant's ‘Formula of Humanity’ Revisited
Kantian Duties to the Self, Explained and Defended
The present article is an attempt to clarify the Kantian conception of duties to the self and to defend them against common objections. Kant’s thesis that all duty rests on duties to the self is shown to follow from the autonomy of the human will; and the allegation that they are impossible because the agent could always release himself from such a duty turns out to be question-begging. There is no attempt to prove that there are such duties, but…
Kant's Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals a commentary: A Commentary
The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals is Kant's central contribution to moral philosophy, and has inspired controversy ever since it was first published in 1785. Kant champions the insights of 'common human understanding' against what he sees as the dangerous perversions of ethical theory. Morality is revealed to be a matter of human autonomy: Kant locates the source of the 'categorical imperative' within each and every human will. However,…
Kant's Grundlegung: A Reply to Dieter Schönecker
Volume 12 (2007) contains a review of my little edition- cum -commentary of Kant's Grundlegung (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2004; henceforth ‘CG’). As I am familiar with the work of the reviewer, Dieter Schönecker, most of the points mentioned did not surprise me. I was, however, taken aback by the, let us say, unhelpful manner in which they were raised. Schönecker's criticisms concern largely not ‘blunders’, ‘misinterpretations’ or ‘factua…
Kant's Critique of Practical Reason: A Critical Guide
The Critique of Practical Reason is the second of Kant's three Critiques, and his second work in moral theory after the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Its systematic account of the authority of moral principles grounded in human autonomy unfolds Kant's considered views on morality and provides the keystone to his philosophical system. The essays in this volume shed light on the principal arguments of the second Critique and explore thei…
Two conceptions of compatibilism in the Critical Elucidation
The 'Critical Elucidation of the Analytic of Pure Practical Reason' develops two distinctive conceptions of how freedom of choice and causal determinism may be reconciled. These two conceptions of freedom of choice correspond to a distinction between what Kant calls 'psychological' and what he calls 'transcendental freedom'. The Critical Elucidation presents the argument of the Analytic of Pure Practical Reason as a kind of practical syllogism th…
Kant's 'Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals': A Critical Guide
Kant's 'Critique of Practical Reason': A Critical Guide
Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A Critical Guide
Immanuel Kant: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A German–English edition
Published in 1785, the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals is one of the most powerful texts in the history of ethical thought. In this book, Immanuel Kant formulates and justifies a supreme principle of morality that issues universal and unconditional moral commands. These commands receive their normative force from the fact that rational agents autonomously impose the moral law upon themselves. As such, they are laws of freedom. This volume…
Immanuel Kant: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A German–English edition
Published in 1785, the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals is one of the most powerful texts in the history of ethical thought. In this book, Immanuel Kant formulates and justifies a supreme principle of morality that issues universal and unconditional moral commands. These commands receive their normative force from the fact that rational agents autonomously impose the moral law upon themselves. As such, they are laws of freedom. This volume…
Autonomy and moral regard for ends
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
"Kant's "Tugendlehre: A Comprehensive Commentary
In recent years there has been renewed interest in the Doctrine of Virtue, the ethical part of Kant's late systematic treatise on moral philosophy, the Metaphysics of Morals. The present volume responds to these demands. Following a series of research workshops, 18 scholars from Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States provide a seamless commentary on the Doctrine of Virtue, discussing topics such as suicide, truthfulness, moral perfection, …
Mrongovius II: A supplement to theGroundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
The Cambridge Companion to Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism, the approach to ethics based on the maximization of overall well-being, continues to have great traction in moral philosophy and political thought. This Companion offers a systematic exploration of its history, themes, and applications. First, it traces the origins and development of utilitarianism via the work of Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Henry Sidgwick, and others. The volume then explores issues in the formulation of ut…
The Cambridge History of Moral Philosophy
With fifty-four chapters charting the development of moral philosophy in the Western world, this volume examines the key thinkers and texts and their influence on the history of moral thought from the pre-Socratics to the present day. Topics including Epicureanism, humanism, Jewish and Arabic thought, perfectionism, pragmatism, idealism and intuitionism are all explored, as are figures including Aristotle, Boethius, Spinoza, Hobbes, Hume, Kant, H…
Emerging Autonomy: Dealing with the Inadequacies of the “Canon” of the Critique of Pure Reason (1781)
Autonomy, Progress and Virtue: Why Kant has Nothing to Fear from the Overdemandingness Objection
Is Kant’s ethical theory too demanding? Do its commands ask too much of us, either by calling for self-sacrifice on particular occasions, or by pervading our lives to the extent that there is no room for permissible action? In this article, I argue that Kant’s ethics is very demanding, but not excessively so. The notion of ‘latitude’ (the idea that wide duty admits of ‘exceptions’) does not help. But we need to bear in mind (i) that moral laws ar…
The Law and the Good. Kant’s Paradox of Method
This article discusses the priority of the moral law (over the notion of value) in Kant's ethics, with a particular focus on the second chapter of the Analytic of the 1788 "Critique of Practical Reason"
Kant's Will at the Crossroads: An Essay on the Failings of Practical Rationality
What happens when human beings fail to do as reason bids? This book is an attempt to address this age-old question within Kant’s mature practical philosophy, i.e. the practical philosophy that emerged with the watershed discovery of autonomy in the mid-1780s. As always, Kant is good for a surprise. There is, it is argued, not one answer but two: he advocates Socratic intellectualism in the realm of prudence whilst defending an anti-intellectualis…
The Quandary of Infanticide in Kant’s ‘Doctrine of Right’
The aim of this paper is to settle the controversy around Kant’s notorious discussion of maternal infanticide in the ‘Doctrine of Right’ of 1797. How should a state punish an unmarried mother who has killed her newborn infant? The text (at DoR VI 335–37) is obscure. Three readings have been defended in the literature: 1. Lenience. Maternal infanticide does not count as murder; so, capital punishment is inappropriate. On this view, the child does …
Philosophical Ethics and Theory (19 works) · Epistemology (18 works) · Political science (15 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Law (11 works) · Morality (9 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Autonomy (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · immanuel Kant (1724-1804) (6 works)