Kant And The Limits Of Autonomy

Autonomy for Kant is not just a synonym for the capacity to choose, whether simple or deliberative. It is what the word literally implies: the imposition of a law on one's own authority and out of one's own rational resources. In Kant and the Limits of Autonomy, Shell explores the limits of Kantian autonomy--both the force of its claims and the complications to which they give rise. Through a careful examination of major and minor works, Shell argues for the importance of attending to the difficulty inherent in autonomy and to the related resistance that in Kant's view autonomy necessarily provokes in us. Such attention yields new access to Kant's famous, and famously puzzling, Groundlaying of the Metaphysics of Morals. It also provides for a richer and more unified account of Kant's later political and moral works; and it highlights the pertinence of some significant but neglected early writings, including the recently published Lectures on Anthropology. Kant and the Limits of Autonomy is both a rigorous, philosophically and historically informed study of Kantian autonomy and an extended meditation on the foundation and limits of modern liberalism.

This book explores the central importance Kant's concept of autonomy for contemporary moral thought and modern philosophy.

Kant and Applied Ethics makes an important contribution to Kant scholarship, illuminating the vital moral parameters of key ethical debates. Offers a critical analysis of Kant’s ethics, interrogating the theoretical bases of his theory and evaluating their strengths and weaknesses Examines the controversies surrounding the most important ethical discussions taking place today, including abortion, the death penalty, and same-sex marriage Joins innovative thinkers in contemporary Kantian scholarship, including Christine Korsgaard, Allen Wood, and Barbara Herman, in taking Kant’s philosophy in new and interesting directions Clarifies Kant's legacy for applied ethics, helping us to understand how these debates have been structured historically and providing us with the philosophical tools to address them

Andrews Reath presents a selection of his best essays on various features of Kant's moral psychology and moral theory, with particular emphasis on his conception of rational agency and his conception of autonomy. The opening essays explore different elements of Kant's views about motivation, including his account of respect for morality as the distinctive moral motive and his view of the principle of happiness as a representation of the shared structure of non-moral choice. These essays stress the unity of Kant's moral psychology by arguing that moral and non-moral considerations motivate in essentially the same way. Several of the essays develop an original approach to Kant's conception of autonomy that emphasizes the political metaphors found throughout Kant's writings on ethics. They argue that autonomy is best interpreted not as a psychological capacity, but as a kind of sovereignty: in claiming that moral agents have autonomy, Kant regards them as a kind of sovereign legislator with the power to give moral law through their willing. The final essays explore some of the implications of this conception of autonomy elsewhere in Kant's moral thought, arguing that his Formula of Universal Law uses this conception of autonomy to generate substantive moral principles and exploring the connection between Kantian self-legislation and duties to oneself. The collection offers revised versions of several previously published essays, as well as two new papers, 'Autonomy of the Will as the Foundation of Morality' and 'Agency and Universal Law'. It will be of interest to all students and scholars of Kant, and to many moral philosophers.

In Autonomy and Community, contemporary Kant scholars apply Kant's moral and political views to current social issues, examining contemporary topics through the lenses of various recent Kantian approaches to issues in ethical, political, and social philosophy. The articles, written with a minimum of technical language, engage current social problems directly, demonstrating the possibility of diverse applications of Kant's views. The authors, reaching well beyond the realm of academic philosophy, apply Kant's moral and political views to contemporary social concerns both general and specific. Under the first heading are chapters presenting readings of Kant's social theory and theory of human history, the relationship of moral practice to the social contract, Kant's theory of civic duty, and the relevance of Kantian philosophy to contemporary feminist theory. In Part II, more specific issues of contemporary interest are explored: war, international relations, race and ethnicity questions, abortion, capital punishment, environmental ethics, labor relations, and the nature of the institution of marriage. Taken as a whole, Autonomy and Community shows that Kantianism offers a social vision that goes far beyond Kant's well-known abstract theory. [Contributors to the book include Sharon Anderson-Gold, Thomas Auxter, Susan Feldman, Gerald F. Gaus, Charles W. Mills, Nelson Potter, Philip Rossi, Robin May Schott, Harry van der Linden, Hollyn L. Wilson, Robert Paul Wolff, and Allen W. Wood.]

Katerina Deligiorgi offers a contemporary defence of autonomy which is Kantian but engages closely with recent arguments about agency, morality, and practical reasoning. The concept of autonomy should be understood in relation to others as well as to ourselves: it is theoretically plausible, psychologically realistic, and morally attractive.

In this work, originally published in 1986, Victor Seidler explores the different notions of respect, equality and dependency in Kant’s moral writings. He illuminates central tensions and contradictions not only within Kant’s moral philosophy, but within the thinking and feeling about human dignity and social inequality which we take very much for granted within a liberal moral culture. In challenging our assumption of the autonomy of morality, Seidler also questions our understanding of what it means for someone to live as a person in his or her own right. The autonomy of individuals cannot be assumed but has to be reasserted against relationships of subordination. This involves a break with a rationalist morality, so that respect for others involves respect for emotions, feelings, desires and needs, and establishes a fuller autonomy as a basis for freedom and justice.

Raef Zreik traces Kant's struggle to establish the concept of "autonomy" as an organizing principle in his practical philosophy. While describing the inherent tensions facing this project, this book offers a fresh way of understanding contemporary debates.