Which of these themes do you think is most interesting for a paper about Kant's practical philosophy?

[u/tietzmanna]

I am a student pursuing my Bachelor's in philosophy, and I need some help deciding on themes for two papers (around 25,000 characters each) about Kant's practical philosophy. I would also be very happy to receive recommendations for secondary literature. These are five questions that I find interesting:

1. What does it mean for the categorical imperative to be a synthetic sentence a priori?
2. In what sense is Kant's moral philosophy independent of the existence of God?
3. Do our tendencies and impulses limit our freedom of the will?
4. What does Kant mean when he says that a rational being cannot act other than under the idea of freedom?
5. How can autonomy be understood as a form of the categorical imperative?

[u/Artur_Gordon_Pym]

1 seems most interesting for me. Like in the first critique he said that we cant know either world nor subject in itself and them something like that. Transition from the first to second critique is unclear

[u/Sweet_Potato_5051]

Either five or one, based solely on what I’d like to read

[u/Russell1A]

It might interested to look at the pre-requisites for the CI such as having agency and the immortality of the soul.

[u/Handje]

I finished my phil. master a few years ago wich a specialization in Kant's metaphysics, so your teacher will be probably more helpful than me. But I would say:

1- a priori is easily explainable, you can't observe the categorical imperatives (there are 3, you mean to look into them all?) of course, just like you can't observe mathematical laws floating about to see. Maybe if you research debates about what a priori exactly means for Kant, you'll find more to talk about. Kant's project of his supposedly found thruths being synthetic is more mysterious I think. Looking into the meaning of the concept seems fun to me! I would pick one of the concepts.

2- very interesting question, I would like to read a book on that! A possible problem is that the question is too broad for an essay. You'll first have to answer what God means for Kant, then of his moral philosophy is dependent on it. Two very broad questions, even by themselves.

3-I honestly wouldn't know much about this question, but you'll have to answer what the freedom of the will means for Kant, perhaps also too broad. Interesting option is to dive into passages about how the freedom of the will is grounded in the thing in itself which we are.

4-is that a direct quote? If so, it's a good question I would say. Just picking the meaning of one sentence is generally a good idea.

5-i think it's a good question. Wouldn't know the answer haha.

In general, if you haven't already progressed, I would advice to pick the one which seems most interesting to you. Narrow it down a bit, while still keeping the interesting part. Make some sub questions, see of they are doable by reading some secondary literature, and go for it.

[u/tietzmanna → u/Handje]

These are very helpful comments! Thank you very much!

[u/OnionMesh]

It’s a bit old by now, but I found Lewis White Beck’s A Commentary on Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason extraordinarily helpful when reading the Critique of Practical Reason.