In this work, Kant develops the political and ethical philosophy for which the Groundwork and the Critique of Practical Reason provide the foundation.

Kant made a second edition with slight revisions in 1798, which include adding an appendix responding to a review of the Doctrine of Right by Friedrich Bouterwek.

The Doctrine of Right is grounded in republican interpretation of origins of political community as civil society and establishment of positive law.

The Doctrine of Virtue further develops Kant's ethical theory, which he had already laid the foundation in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785) and the Critique of Practical Reason.

Kant uses this distinction in discussing some of the duties that were shown as examples in the Groundwork in more detail (viz., not lying, not committing suicide, cultivating one's talents, and being beneficent toward others).