Review by Choice Review
Sweet (Texas A&M Univ.) aims to "articulate, in broad strokes, Kant's comprehensive vision of practical life, and to do so with reference to what grounds it." The ground of practical life is "reason's demand for the unconditioned" (freedom). This demand becomes the thread that weaves together the various aspects of Sweet's well-written narrative. In six neatly organized and fluid chapters, readers see moral freedom unfold in the individual, and come to its fruition in an ethical community. Sweet argues that this happens, if it can happen at all (since it is an ideal), only through a dynamic movement of culture and history. However, the "broad strokes" of Sweet's narrative can sometimes be frustrating because she acknowledges, but does not investigate, some of the potential problems with Kantian ethics--e.g., Kant as moralist, or the problem that his ethics may be merely a sophisticated reformulation of some version of Christian ethics. These occasional frustrations notwithstanding, this book is a clear, accessible, and valuable contribution to scholarship on Kant's ethics. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty. J. N. Graham Bridgewater College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
