ABSTRACT
When he named the heavens and morality in a single breath, Immanuel Kant was expressing two ideas. The first is that the categorical imperative as an eternal law of morality lays claim to the same binding authority as does the celestial mechanics of natural laws. The second is that the binding force behind responsible action is the awe one feels before this law of morality - comparable to the awe one feels before cosmic eternity. The idea that morality and ethics are embedded in or even justified by particular socio-historical contexts would have been categorically rejected by both Kant and Nicolai Hartmann, each of whose systems of ethics was based on a priori assumptions. The description and analysis of actual moral judgments and behavior were of little or no interest to Kant or Hartmann, nor were prescriptions for acting morally in concrete situations.
