Happiness in Kant’s Practical Philosophy: Morality, Indirect Duties, and Welfare Rights

Kants understanding of happiness shapes his moral, political, and legal philosophy, and his underlying assumptions about happiness are rarely discussed. Alice Pinheiro Walla's book sheds light on puzzling claims and contradictory remarks, showing that happiness influences Kant's methodology and conclusions. The challenge of happiness is that it is impossible to know for certain what will make us happy, and what we take to be happiness changes over our lifetime. Kant offers a distinctive strategy for dealing with this indeterminacy, rooted in understanding our duties to ourselves and others.

Format: Hardback
Length: 204 pages
Publication date: 23 September 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Kants Practical Philosophy: Morality, Indirect Duties, and Welfare Rights explores the role and normative implications of Kant's understanding of happiness for his moral, political, and legal philosophy. While Kant's assumptions about happiness are often overlooked or under-explained, Alice Pinheiro Walla's book sheds light on these assumptions and the scattered remarks Kant makes about happiness. The book demonstrates that happiness shapes or indirectly influences Kant's methodology and conclusions, including his views on practical rationality, meta-ethics, the role of the state, and political justification. The challenge with happiness is that it is impossible to know for certain what will make us happy, and our understanding of happiness changes over time. Kant offers a distinctive strategy for dealing with this indeterminacy of happiness, rooted in understanding our duties to ourselves and others. Happiness in Kants Practical Philosophy provides a map of the areas in which the concept of happiness or considerations about the happiness of individuals appear in Kant's practical works and analyzes the way they relate to central themes of his practical theory.

Weight: 458g
Dimension: 159 x 236 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781793633545