This second edition of Immanuel Kant's The Metaphysics of Morals within Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy (CTHP) contains a new Introduction and a new Further Reading section. The index has been updated. There are only minimal changes, however, to Mary J. Gregor's translation from the first CTHP edition (Cambridge University Press, 1996). Consequently, that edition's Translator's Note on the Text has been retained, albeit with a few new editorial notes and small alterations.
Footnotes to the text of The Metaphysics of Morals that are new to this edition or revised from the first edition are indicated by my initials, unless they are merely providing German words translated or making minor editorial changes. In this edition, the German words cited in translation notes are inflected and spelled as they are within the Academy Edition of the text edited by Paul Natorp (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1907), on which Gregor's translation is based.
I flag revisions to Gregor's translation in footnotes, except where the changes seem too insignificant to warrant it. Where I am aware that Gregor's translation is controversial, I have usually retained it and alerted readers to the issue or offered an alternative translation in a footnote. When a problem with, or an alternative to, Gregor's translation came to my attention through (or is helpfully explained by) a particular article or book, I have cited the source. I hope that, in addition to giving credit where it is due, those citations will encourage inquisitive readers to seek out the sources cited and explore their discussions of the terms, text, and interpretive or philosophical stakes.
I wish to thank several people for their help with various aspects of this project. Frederick Rauscher, Eric Entrican Wilson, and Allen W. Wood gave me valuable feedback on drafts of the Introduction and Further Reading section. Suggestions or consultation concerning the translation and notes were provided by Paul Guyer, Arthur Ripstein, Barbara Sattler, Jens Timmermann, Helga Varden, and Allen W. Wood. I thank Hilary Gaskin and Karl Ameriks for inviting me to undertake this project, and Agnes Scott College for a sabbatical leave during which I completed most of my work on it. Finally, I thank my husband, Roger Wertheimer, for his enduring support, encouragement, patience, and sense of humor.