In a short chapter of the Critique of Practical Reason entitled On the Typic of the Pure
Practical Power of Judgment Kant addresses a crucial problem facing his theory of moral
judgment: How can we represent the supersensible moral law so as to apply it to actions in the
sensible world? Despite its importance to Kant's project previous studies of the Typic have
been fragmentary disparate and contradictory. This book provides a detailed commentary on the
Typic elucidating how it enables moral judgment by means of the law of nature which serves as
the 'type' or analogue of the moral law. In addition the book situates the Typic both
historically and conceptually within Kant's theory of symbolic representation. While many
commentators have assimilated the Typic to the aesthetic notion of 'symbolic hypotyposis' in
the third Critique the author contends that it has greater continuities with the theoretical
notion of 'symbolic anthropomorphism' in the Prolegomena. As the first comprehensive
book-length study of the Typic that critically engages with the secondary literature this
monograph fills an important gap in the research on Kant's ethics and aesthetics and provides a
starting point for further inquiry and debate.
