The Categorical Imperative: A Study in Kant’s Moral Philosophy by H. J. Paton (review)

BOOK REVIEWS The Categorical Imperative: A Study in Kant's Moral Philosophy. By H. J. PATON. London: Hutchinson, 1947. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948. Pp. 288, with index. $4.00. This book, by one of the foremost Kantian scholars of our day, is a most valuable addition to the already extensive literature dealing with Kant's moral philosophy. The author, who is White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford University, has already treated of this subject in his The Good Will, and Can Reason be Practical, and has dealt authoritatively with Kant's theoretical doctrine in his well-known Kant's Metaphysic of Experience. The present work is the fruit of some twenty years of reflection, and is far from being a repetition of what he has already written. It treats principally of the Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten), in which Kant seeks to discover, formulate, and justify the supreme principle of morality in so far as it can be gathered from an analysis of the moral judgments on which good-living men seek to act. The main purpose of Prof. Paton's work is to help the reader to understand Kant's text and arguments; and if this were his sole purpose, his book would be as opportune as it is successful . But he found that " a whole series of misinterpretations has become traditional and stands in the way of an unprejudiced approach " to the text (p. 15) , so that his book has the added aim of defending the thought of Kant against such misconceptions. " Thus Kant is commonly supposed to maintain that no action can be moral if we have any natural inclination towards it or if we obtain the slightest pleasure from its performance; and again that a good man must take no account whatever of the consequences of his actions but must deduce all the manifold duties of life from the bare conception of moral law as such-without any regard for the characteristics of human nature or the circumstances of human life (ibid.) ." Prof. Paton sets out to show that such views, though they may find some support in a cursory reading of the text, are not advanced by Kant. Other criticisms may be levelled against him, and Prof. Paton does frequently draw attention to flaws in Kant's arguments, but he cannot be accused of views so contrary to morality and common sense. " Such interpretations are a distortion of his actual teaching, which is always reasonable, even if it may not always be correct (ibid.) ." The great value of this work as an exposition of the Grundlegung will perhaps be fully appreciated only by those who have tried to understand Kant by direct and unaided study of the text. Reading Prof. Paton after 271 272 BOOK REVIEWS such an experience is like 'being presented with a key after having tried in vain to open a locked door. I do not know of any other treatise which presents Kant's doctrine with such clarity and objectivity, and with such detailed references, not only to the text, but also to the other works of Kant. This is a truly scholarly work, in which the author draws on that extensive knowledge of Kant's whole system which only a lifetime of study can give and which is indispensable for the proper understanding of particular works. Thus, from this book alone, the beginner would acquire quite a comprehensive outline of the Critique of Pure Reason, and many a more advanced student will find new light thrown on several of the knotty problems of Kant's theoretical philosophy. The first chapter is an admirable description of the critical method as employed by the founder of Criticism; the function of reason is clearly explained (pp. 96-102), as also are analytic and synthetic propositions (pp. 120-128), the spontaneity of mind (pp. 143, 4), the function of schemata (pp. 143, 4; 158, 9) and the meaning of laws of nature (pp. 69, 146 ff.). Chapter 22, in particular, on the intelligible world, and the following chapter on membership in this world, have much to say on the relation between intellect and sense...