Jens Timmermann

Jens Timmermann (born 1 May 1970) is a German philosopher and the Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. He is best known for his research on Kant’s ethics, political philosophy and philosophy of law.

Career Jens Timmermann was educated at the University of Göttigen and at Balliol College, Oxford. He completed his PhD, entitled Sittengesetz und Freiheit: Untersuchungen zu Immanuel Kants Theorie des freien Willens, in 1998 under the supervision of Günther Patzig and Konrad Cramer. Prior to his appointment as lecturer at the University of St Andrews in 2000, Timmermann held a Junior Research Fellowship at Keble College, Oxford. In 2015, he was promoted to Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of St Andrews and in 2023 he was elected as a member of the Academia Europaea.

Timmermann has translated and edited several of the English language translations of the works of Immanuel Kant. He has also written extensively on Kant in his own writings including in Kant’s Will at the Crossroads, a monograph on Kant’s theory of practical irrationality, and in Kant and the Supposed Right to Lie, a monograph on the Kant–Constant controversy.

Books Sittengesetz Und Freiheit: Untersuchungen Zu Immanuel Kants Theorie Des Freien Willens, De Gruyter, 2003 Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A Commentary, Cambridge University Press, 2007 Kant's 'Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals': A Critical Guide (ed.), Cambridge University Press, 2009 Kant's Critique of Practical Reason: A Critical Guide, Co-editor with Andrews Reath, Cambridge University Press, 2010 Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A German-English Edition, ed. and tr. Mary Gregor and Jens Timmermann. Cambridge University Press, 2011 Kant's 'Tugendlehre''', Co-editor with Oliver Sensen and Andreas Trampota, De Gruyter, 2013 The Cambridge History of Moral Philosophy, Co-editor with Sacha Golob, Cambridge University Press, 2017 Kant's Will at the Crossroads: an essay on the failings of practical rationality, Oxford University Press, 2022 Kant and the Supposed Right to Lie'', Cambridge University Press, 2025