The Categorical Imperative, Empty Formalism, and Happiness

Abstract

Abstract This chapter focuses on issues raised in the first reviews of Kant’s first two books in moral philosophy. Of special interest are the reviews of the Groundwork and Critique of Practical Reason by Herman Andreas Pistorius, the first published quickly in 1786 while the second, although apparently written in timely fashion, did not appear until 1794. Pistorius developed the charge that the categorical imperative is an “empty formalism,” and more generally argued that a conception of what is right must presuppose an account of the good, and that morality must be founded on the recognition that happiness is the natural end of human beings, not merely an incidental object of morality. Kant’s amplification of the conception of the highest good in the Critique of Practical Reason is already a response to Pistorius’s criticism of the Groundwork, while the “empty formalism” objection would be repeated by Hegel in both 1802 and 1821, and by many since.