The nature and theoretical underpinnings of ethics have been an intellectual driving force animating the pursuits of great scholars. In The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals (1785) Immanuel Kant, one of the most powerful philosophical minds of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, inquires into the true nature of morality. In rejecting the results or consequences of action as the foundation of moral judgments, he denies that good or bad effects have any relevance in the moral evaluation of human behavior. Instead, we must rely upon the Good Will for guidance. What is this Will upon which so much emphasis is placed, and how does it act as the foundation for behavior that can be assessed as truly moral? In this groundbreaking work, Kant outlines an ethical perspective that has been a vital force in the Western world.

The theoretical knowledge of right and law in principle, as distinguished from positive laws and empirical cases, belongs to the pure science of right The science of right thus designates the philosophical and systematic knowledge of the principles of natural right. And it is from this science that the immutable principles of all positive legislation must be derived by practical jurists and lawgivers.