The Invention of Autonomy: A History of Modern Moral Philosophy
This book is the most comprehensive study ever written of the history of moral philosophy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its aim is to set Kant's still influential ethics in its historical context by showing in detail what the central questions in moral philosophy were for him and how he arrived at his own distinctive ethical views. In its range, its analyses of many philosophers not usually considered in histories of ethics, and its discussions of the interweaving of religious...
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Study of the history of moral philosophy which puts Kant's ethics into historical context.
PrefaceAcknowledgmentsA note on references and abbreviationsIntroduction11Themes in the history of modern moral philosophy3Pt. IThe rise and fall of modern natural law152Natural law: From intellectualism to voluntarism173Setting religion aside: Republicanism and skepticism374Natural law restated: Suarez and Grotius585Grotianism and the limit: Hobbes826A morality of love: Cumberland1017The central synthesis: Pufendorf1188The collapse of modern natural law: Locke and Thomasius141Pt. IIPerfectionism and rationality1679Origins of modern perfectionism16910Paths and God: I. The Cambridge Platonists19411Paths to God: II. Spinoza and Malebranche21512Leibniz: Counterrevolutionary perfectionism236Pt. IIIToward a world of its own26113Morality without salvation26314The recovery of virtue28515The austerity of morals: Clarke and Mandeville31016The limits of love: Hutcheson and Butler33017Hume: Virtue naturalized35418Against a fatherless world37819The noble effects of self-love404Pt. IVAutonomy and divine order42920Perfection and will: Wolff and Crusius43121Religion, morality, and reform45722The invention of autonomy48323Kant in the history of moral philosophy508Epilogue53124Pythagoras, Socrates, and Kant: Understanding the history of moral philosophy533Bibliography555Index of names593Index of subjects612Index of biblical citations624
\ From the Publisher"The Invention of Autonomy is a remarkable work." New Series\ "The author successfully aims at clarity, accuracy, and conciseness in telling the history as it was understood by those who made it -- in their own words and with a full conciousness of the religious and sociopolitical contexts. As a contribution to scholarship, Schneewind's book brings together a great deal of material from many sources. Its encylclopedic character makes it primarirly useful as a work of reference for specialists -- both professors and graduate students -- in modern ethical theory and the history of modern philosophy." John A. Gueguen, Perspectives on Political Science\ "The author successfully aims at clarity, accuracy, and conciseness in telling the history as it was understood by those who made it -- in their own words and with a full conciousness of the religious and sociopolitical contexts. As a contribution to scholarship, Schneewind's book brings together a great deal of material from many sources. Its encylclopedic character makes it primarirly useful as a work of reference for specialists -- both professors and graduate students -- in modern ethical theory and the history of modern philosophy." John A. Gueguen, Perspectives on Political Science\ "...this book is a major scholarly achievement." Terence Penelhum, Ethics\ "The book is in part appropriate for upper-level undergraduate courses concerned with the history of ethics and practical philosophy, including aspects of political philosophy....scholars will find it to offer a strong antidote to anachronistic interpretation from the limited perspective of twentieth century ethics. Schneewind's scholarship is uniformly of the very highest caliber. Schneewind shows what can be done by someone with complete command over the currents of an entire epoch." Review of Metaphysics\ "This book is valuable in a great many ways...Schneewind has done a remarkable job of placing Kant in the context of historical issues...This is among the very most complete and insightful histories of ethics available today." Ethics and Medicine\ "The book is in part appropriate for upper-level undergraduate courses concerned with the history of ethics and practical philosophy, including aspects of political philosophy....scholars will find it to offer a strong antidote to anachronistic interpretation from the limited perspective of twentieth century ethics. Schneewind's scholarship is uniformly of the very highest caliber. Schneewind shows what can be done by someone with complete command over the currents of an entire epoch." Review of Metaphysics\ \ \
