Working on the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1784): “Philosophy … in a Precarious Position”

Kant sent the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals to the publisher at the beginning of September 1784. The book appeared only eight months later, in April of 1785. But it was actually longer in coming than that, being rooted in concerns that Kant had first formulated twenty years earlier, and that had been on his mind ever since. He began to tackle those concerns directly toward the end of 1781 or the beginning of 1782. As early as May 7, 1781, Hamann asked Hartknoch, the publisher of the first Critique, to prod Kant to publish his metaphysics of nature and morals. Hartknoch suggested this to Kant in November of the same year, and Hamann could tell Hartknoch at the beginning of 1782 that Kant was indeed working on the Metaphysics of Morals, though he could not tell him whether Kant would publish it with Hartknoch. Yet it took Kant another three years to finish a work on the metaphysics of morals, and what he published was not the Metaphysics of Morals itself, but a preliminary investigation toward such a Metaphysics.