The Critique of Practical Reason 📖 By Immanuel Kant. FULL Audiobook

The Critique of Practical Reason. By Immanuel Kant. Full Audiobook
"The Critique of Practical Reason" is a philosophical work by Immanuel Kant, published in 1788. The book is divided into two parts: the "Doctrine of Elements" and the "Doctrine of Method." The former contains the "Analytic of Pure Practical Reason" and the "Dialectic of Pure Practical Reason," while the latter proposes a new method for moral education.

The Analytic section of the book is set up like a geometric proof and takes several steps to reach its primary conclusion, that the one ultimate moral principle is to only act such that the maxim of your will could hold universally. A law, Kant says, must be necessary and universal, for otherwise it is no law. If that is so, though, its force cannot be dependent on any contingent feature of the person following it. Next, he argues that any law whose force was supposed to depend on its content would run afoul of this. The Analytic goes on to argue that the free person and the moral person are one and the same. The free person acts on a law, and not randomly, but not an externally given law, for that would be a form of slavery. Only the categorical imperative is found suitable. Conversely, the moral person is following the practical law and is not bound by contingent desires, and so is autonomous.

The Dialectic accuses all previous ethical writers of having made the same mistake, the mistake of having regarded the morally worthy as aiming at the highest good instead of seeing the highest good as that which is aimed at by morality. These ethical systems were doomed to fail because the moral will cannot be constrained by an independent highest good, since for it to seek anything independent of itself would be to constrain its freedom. In this phenomenal world, furthermore, the highest good is not to be found. However, since following the practical law presupposes believing that its aim, the highest good, will be then achieved, reason requires us to believe the highest good is achievable.

In summary, "The Critique of Practical Reason" emphasizes that the moral law is inherent in our reason and guides our actions towards the pursuit of moral duty. Reason allows individuals to recognize universal moral principles, which compel them to act in accordance with their duty, irrespective of personal desires or outcomes. The book is a significant work in moral philosophy and places Kant's ethical views within the larger framework of his system of critical philosophy. .
More: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, moral philosophy
free will, practical metaphysics, categorical imperative
moral principles, human autonomy, philosophy
transcendental method, pure forms of intuition, pure concepts of understanding
causality, substance, empiricists

00:00:00 Preface
00:20:05 Introduction. Of The Idea Of A Critique Of Practical Reason
00:24:01 FIRST PART. ELEMENTS OF PURE PRACTICAL REASON. Book I. The Analytic of Pure Practical Reason
03:51:27 Book II. Dialectic of Pure Practical Reason
05:20:12 Second Part. Methodology Of Pure Practical Reason
05:43:56 Conclusion