Kant's deontological eudaimonism : the dutiful pursuit of virtue and happiness /

In this refreshing volume Grenberg (St. Olaf College) presents the innovative argument that Kant's moral philosophy combines teleology and deontology, concepts scholars often separate. Anchoring this pivotal study in Kant's rereading of the ancient parable, drawn from Xenophon, about Hercules's decisive "choice of a life," Grenberg redraws the outlines of Kant's moral system, inviting readers--using her richly suggestive "phenomenological method" (as she terms it)--to deconstruct the rigid compartments that constrain Kantian moral philosophy in the standard reading and to reapproach Kant's ideas about the doctrine of virtue, the categorical imperative, and the kingdom of ends in light of an overarching telos she dubs "the dutiful pursuit of virtue and happiness." This is an important, carefully constructed work of philosophical argumentation, and as with many such works the prose is dense. But Grenberg's two-part arrangement for the central argument--involving a careful exposition of the objective telos of deontology followed by an attentive analysis of the subjective telos of the "happy subject"--serves her well, allowing her to make a plausible case for her novel reinterpretation of moral happiness as "non-self-aggrandizing self-contentment," discussed in the last chapter. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates yhrough faculty. --John G. Moore, Lander University