Kant’s Theory of Value (Kantstudien-Ergänzungshefte, 219)

In explicit form, Kant does not speak that much about values or goods. The reason for this is obvious: the concepts of ‘values’ and ‘goods’ are part of the eudaimonistic tradition, and he famously criticizes eudaimonism for its flawed ‘material’ approach to ethics. But he uses, on several occasions, the traditional teleological language of goods and values. Especially in the Groundwork and the Critique of Practical Reason, Kant develops crucial points on this conceptual basis. Furthermore, he implicitly discusses issues of conditional and unconditional values, subjective and objective values, aesthetic or economic values etc. In recent Kant scholarship, there has been a controversy on the question how moral and nonmoral values are related in Kant’s account of human dignity. This leads to the more fundamental problem if Kant should be seen as a prescriptvist (antirealist) or as subscribing to a more objective rational agency account of goods. This issue and several further questions are addressed in this volume