SAPIENTIÆ

Die Lorbeeren des bloßen Wollens sind trockene Blätter, die niemals gegrünt haben.
— Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Handle so, daß du die Menschheit sowohl in deiner Person, als in der Person eines jeden anderen jederzeit zugleich als Zweck, niemals bloß als Mittel brauchest.
— Immanuel Kant

Denn das Fragen ist die Frömmigkeit des Denkens.
— Martin Heidegger

Freiheit sich schaffen zu neuem Schaffen.
— Friedrich Nietzsche

Niemals noch hängte sich die Wahrheit an den Arm eines Unbedingten.
— Friedrich Nietzsche

Was sagt dein Gewissen? – "Du sollst der werden, der du bist."
— Friedrich Nietzsche

La philosophie a horreur des discussions, elle a toujours autre chose à faire.
— Gilles Deleuze

The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs [...] is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges.
— Willard Van Orman Quine

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein

Time being, after all, only the current of the soul in its flow.
— D.H. Lawrence

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Kant’s metaphysical foundation of moral action

Kant’s metaphysical foundation of moral action

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On 22^nd April 2025, I defended my master thesis at the University of Amsterdam on „Kants metaphysische Begründung der moralischen Handlung“ («Kant’s metaphysical foundation of moral action»). The thesis marked the completion of my master study philosophy, which allowed me to profoundly study Kant’s philosophy, which is today as actual as ever. Read the summary in English and download and read the complete thesis (in German).

Departing from the comprehensive account of his transcendental philosophy in the “Critique of Pure Reason“ (1781), Kant developed in his various works on morality – over a period of almost two decades – his practical philosophy, which is based on the inseparable connection between reason, freedom, and moral self-legislation. In this thesis, I subject essential parts of Kant’s relevant works to a metaphysical examination with regard to his foundation of moral action, focusing in particular on Kant’s guiding ideas regarding the following essential concepts and correlations : (i) freedom as a transcendental idea and causality from freedom; (ii) will and “Willkür“, action and deed; (iii) the maxim of the morally acting human being and the “universality test“, and (iv) the “Fact of Reason“. In addition to my own analysis, I refer to selected works by Willaschek, O’Neill, and Korsgaard. Although different starting points for considering the aforementioned guiding ideas lead to different nuances in the interpretation of Kant’s argumentation, the core of his foundation of moral action remains unaffected. This applies, on the one hand, to the noumenal origin of freedom, free will and “Willkür“, and their causal effectiveness in the “world of appearances“ and, on the other hand, to the necessary universalizability of the maxim as a moral law which is objectively valid for all rational beings and inseparably linked to freedom, of which we are immediately aware as a “Fact of Reason“ without being able to explain it theoretically. As Kant explains in various places, inexplicability does not mean that the foundation of the moral action is not valid in the practical sense. Overall, the analysis of the selected texts of Kant’s works shows that his essential statements are characterized by consistent, progressive, or at least interrelated, lines of argument, although there is certainly a need for clarification and interpretation of individual concepts and correlations.