Kants Theorie des höchsten Guts und ihre ideengeschichtlichen Quellen

Kant’s theory of the Highest Good has often been criticised as eudemonist or heteronomous. The talk first shows that Kant explicitly differentiated between Eudemonia and Heteronomy. It then analyses separately the two criticisms referred to. According to the analysis provided in the talk, the only criticism that must be accounted for, within the defined terminological framework, is that of heteronomy. The third part of the talk proposes an interpretation of Kant’s ethics which aims to prove that such criticism is not well-founded. The final section of the talk assesses Kantian eudemonism within the context of Stoicism, Epicureanism and Baumgarten’s Metaphysica as Kant’s sources.