In Germany, Otfried Hoffe has been a leading contributor to debates in moral, legal, political, and social philosophy for close to three decades. Hoffe's work (like that of his contemporary, Jurgen Habermas), brings into relief the relevance of these German discussions to their counterparts in English-language circles.

In this book, originally published in Germany in 1990 and expanded since, Hoffe proposes an extended and original interpretation of Kant' philosophy of law, and social morality. Hoffe articulates his reading of Kant in the context of an account of modernity as a...