Immanuel Kant: Metaphysik der Sitten Vigilantius Historical-critical edition

• Applicant: Sara Di Giulio, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Practical Philosophy ; History of Philosophy
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 570906127

Immanuel Kant: Metaphysik der Sitten Vigilantius. Historical-critical edition. The “Metaphysik der Sitten Vigilantius” is Kant's last moral lecture and a “unique preview” (Louden 2015: 87) of the “Metaphysics of Morals”, which appeared in 1797. The lecture therefore proves to be particularly important from two points of view, which Lehmann (1979: 1045) has already drawn attention to: The Vigilantius represents the final form of the ethics lecture and the culmination of Kant's engagement with Baumgarten, whose “Initia” and “Ethica” Kant used as textbooks for his moral lectures for the entire duration of his academic activity. Moreover, due to the striking similarities in content with the “Metaphysics of Morals”, this lecture is of the greatest importance for the writing of 1797 (ibid.) and thus an indispensable tool for its thorough understanding. The Vigilantius notes are therefore a document of extraordinary importance for the history of the development of Kant's thought and for a deeper understanding of his late work against the background of its historical-philosophical context. Nevertheless, Lehmann's reference edition proves to be scientifically inadequate and to a considerable extent obsolete. Particularly striking in Lehmann's edition in the Akademie-Ausgabe (vol. 27.2.1, 1975; vol. 27.2.2, 1979) are its philological weaknesses and the cursory treatment of Baumgarten as Kant's primary reference. A discussion of the main thematic topics is almost entirely absent, and the sporadic references to secondary literature are by now necessarily outdated. The proposed project aims to realise a historical-critical edition that remedies the aforementioned shortcomings and that presents the text of Kant's last moral lecture in an entirely new editorial layout. The edition text in the Akademie-Ausgabe is emended here on the basis of a comparison with the copy of the original manuscript preserved in Göttingen and supplemented with systematic references to the textbooks. A comprehensive commentary illuminates the most important points of contact between the lecture and the “Metaphysics of Morals” on the one hand and Baumgarten's textbooks on the other. Reference is also made to relevant parallel or complementary passages from other lectures, notes and published works by Kant. In addition, large sections of the introduction to the volume are devoted to a closer examination of central themes of Kant's late work, to the more thorough exploration of which the “Metaphysik der Sitten Vigilantius” makes a decisive contribution. The planned new edition of the “Metaphysik der Sitten Vigilantius” is expected to appear in the Akademie-Ausgabe of Kant's writings. The edition project will be carried out at the Department of Philosophy at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants