Book Reviews / Buchbesprechungen

The book Kant and Applied Ethics: The Uses and Limits of Kant’s Practical Philosophy of Matthew C. Altman is a true refreshment in the world of Kantian scholarship. It is a deep exegetical achievement in reading of Kant’s thought and its actualisation for modern (bio)ethical problems at the same time. As it is noted in the title, the author tries to present and explain the modalities of connection between Kant and applied ethics. Even though it would be probably better to speak about bioethics, the author comes from Anglo-Saxon speaking area and thus he is naturally embedded in the context of “applied ethics”. But the subtitle leaves no doubt about author’s preoccupation: he truly brings in front of a reader an exhaustive and rigorous investigation of some limits of Kant’s practical philosophy. This is clearly stated in the “Preface”: “The admittedly ambitious goal of this book is to look comprehensively at Kant’s moral philosophy as it relates to key debates in contemporary applied ethics.” (p. vi) The first sentence of “Introduction” bluntly summarizes the answer of the subtitle (“Why Kant Now”):