Editing Critique of Practical Reason (section)

== Influence ==
The second Critique exercised a decisive influence over the subsequent development of the field of [[ethics]] and moral philosophy beginning with [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte]]'s ''[[Foundations of the Science of Knowledge|Doctrine of Science]]''. Fichte felt that studying Kant's [[critical philosophy]] in 1790 helped him overcome his crisis of metaphysical determinism.<ref name="La Vopa 151">Anthony J. La Vopa, ''Fichte: The Self and the Calling of Philosophy, 1762-1799'', Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 45-46, 75-76.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Breazeale |first1=Daniel |last2=Fichte |first2=Johann |title=Fichte: Early Philosophical Writings |date=1993 |publisher=Cornell University Press |page=3-6}}</ref> He wrote a letter in late 1790 to Friedrich August Weisshuhn<ref>He was one of Fichte's closest friends during Fichte's youth</ref> about his excitement after reading the second Critique and says that "[p]ropositions which I thought could never be overturned have been overturned for me. Things have been proven to me which I thought could never be proven—for example, the concept of absolute freedom, the concept of duty, etc.— and I feel all the happier for it".<ref>"Fragment of a Letter to Weisshuhn, August—September 1790". Trans. Daniel Breazeale. In {{cite book |last1=Breazeale |first1=Daniel |last2=Fichte |first2=Johann |title=Fichte: Early Philosophical Writings |date=1993 |publisher=Cornell University Press |page=357}}</ref> Later, during the 20th century, it became the principal reference point for [[deontology|deontological]] moral philosophy and [[Kantian ethics]].

In his ''A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason'' (1961) The American philosopher [[Lewis White Beck]] asserted that Kant's ''Critique of Practical Reason'' has unfortunately been neglected by some modern scholars and sometimes even supplanted in their minds by Kant's ''[[Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals]]''. He further argued that students can also acquire a complete understanding of Kant's moral philosophy by reviewing Kant's analysis of the concepts of both freedom and practical reason as presented in the "second critique". Beck asserts that Kant's "second critique" serves to weave each of these diverse strands into a unified pattern for a comprehensive theory on moral authority in general.<ref name="Shook20160211">{{cite book | editor-last=Shook | editor-first=John R. | title=The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Philosophers in America: From 1600 to the Present | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing | publication-place=London | date=2016-02-11 | isbn=978-1-4725-7054-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UlQ0CwAAQBAJ | pages=71–72}}</ref><ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/25504566 Crowe, M. B. University Review, vol. 3, no. 2, 1963, pp. 70–72. Review of "A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason" by Lewis White Beck on JSTOR Accessed 9 Sept. 2024]</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/lewis-white-beck-a-commentary-on-kants-critique-of-practical-reason/page/n3/mode/2up ''A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason''. Beck, Lewis White. University of Chicago Press. p. v-viii (Foreword by Lewis White Beck) ISBN 0-226-04076-3 Lewis White Beck on archive.org]</ref>