ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an account of Kant’s theory of moral motivation that tries to make sense of it as a whole, including his seemingly paradoxical account of the will. It considers the proper understanding of that aspect of Kant’s moral theory that exerts perhaps the most influence on contemporary analytic moral philosophy. Kant’s contribution to the dialectic of desire and reason is a theory of self-sufficient practical reason, a theory of reason’s capacity to exert its own motivational force, independently of desire. The theory of moral motivation that Kant develops is metaphysically extravagant by contemporary standards, even those of sympathetic commentators. Kant has an abiding respect for both sides of the ancient dialectic of freedom and determinism and for the related difficulties in the theory of moral motivation.
