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MUNZEL, G. Felicitas. Kant's Conception of Moral Character: The 'Critical' Link of Morality, Anthropology, and Reflective Judgment. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1999. xxii + 377 pp. Cloth, $53.00; paper, $24.00-Not only is Kant's philosophy a deeply rooted cultural phenomenon, it by design is also a philosophy of culture. More specifically, the Critical system both reflects the Enlightenment movement and was designed by its author to explain and foster the aims and very possibility of that movement. Munzel's work enhances our understanding and appreciation of these features of Kant's achievement.
Guided by Kant's lifelong reflections on anthropology ("in pragmatic regard") and on the intimate connection between anthropology and morality, Munzel presents us with an interpretation according to which our philosopher in his systematic theorizing assigns a central role to human character and its cultivation. In ethical theory, specifically, this character is a moral one. Moral character, Munzel holds, is the "steadfast commitment to virtue . . . realized through a resolute conduct of thought (Denkungsart)." Such conduct leads to a steadfast state and spirit of moral consciousness or comportment of mind (Gesinnung). Anthropologically, moral character is a formative task, to be achieved in a manner which requires the freedom of our power of choice. (Resolute conduct of thought and character alike are free human achievements, due to cultivation, not mere habituation or results of habituation). Aesthetically, such character is a work of art. Ontologically, it is the achievement "of the unity of the natural and moral...