The Science of Ethics

In the introduction to The Doctrine of Virtue, Kant explains the bases for considering this doctrine a science. This involves articulating the principles that govern a scientific ethics and explaining how the science is organized. These matters are taken up in section 1, “The Science of Ethics” of this chapter. Kant also offers a justification of the supreme principle of morality pertaining to a doctrine of virtue as a doctrine of ends. This is the topic of section 2, “The Supreme Principle of the Doctrine of Virtue,” which Kant expresses as “Act according to a maxim of ends that it can be a universal law for everyone to have.” An interpretation of Kant’s argument is spelled out and criticized. The concluding section raises a looming worry about Kant’s project of grounding an entire system of duties in the supreme principle, namely, that the principle lacks enough content to serve as the basis for genuine derivations.