Kant's Gesammelte Schriften. Band V. Kritik Der Praktischen Vernunft.

The second of Kant's three Critiques, this 1788 masterwork asks the question that would reshape modern ethics: what compels us to act morally, if not fear of consequences or the pull of desire? Kant's radical answer is that pure reason itself can determine the will, that rational beings possess a freedom grounded not in whim but in the capacity to obey universal moral law. Here Kant completes the architecture of his practical philosophy: the categorical imperative becomes the supreme principle of morality, and the dignity of the human person rests on the astonishing claim that we are ends in ourselves, never mere means. The "Second Critique" bridges the abstract metaphysics of the first work with concrete ethical life, arguing that the very freedom denied by theoretical reason becomes undeniable when we confront our moral agency. This is not a manual for the morally perplexed but a rigorous examination of what it means to be a rational creature who can, and must, legislate universal law. Its influence extends from contemporary bioethics to political theory, from debates about human rights to the foundations of modern democracy.