The Scope of Autonomy Kant and the Morality of Freedom

by Deligiorgi, Katerina

• ISBN13: 9780199646159
• ISBN10: 0199646155
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-07-26
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Katerina Deligiorgi offers a contemporary defence of autonomy that is Kantian in orientation but which engages closely with recent arguments about agency, morality, and practical reasoning. Autonomy is a key concept in contemporary moral philosophy with deep roots in the history of the subject. However, there is still no agreed view about the correct way to formulate an account of autonomy that adequately captures both our capacity for self-determination and our responsiveness to reasons. The theory defended inThe Scope of Autonomyis distinctive in two respects. First, whereas autonomy has primarily been understood in terms of our relation to ourselves, Deligiorgi shows that it also centrally involves our relation to others. Identifying the intersubjective dimension of autonomy is crucial for the defence of autonomy as a morality of freedom. Second, autonomy must be treated as a composite concept and hence not capturable in simple definitions such as acting on one's higher order desires or on principles one endorses. One of the virtues of the composite picture is that it shows autonomy lying at the intersection of concerns with morality, practical rationality, and freedom. Autonomy pertains to all these areas, though it does not exactly coincide with any of them. Proving this, and so tracing the scope of autonomy, is therefore essential: Deligiorgi shows that autonomy is theoretically plausible, psychologically realistic, and morally attractive.

Author Biography

Katerina Deligiorgi is interested in how reason and value interconnect and how they shape our lives. Kant and Hegel are key points of reference for this work. She is the author of Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment (2005) and editor of Hegel: New Directions (2006); she also edits the Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain. Her current project, following on from The Scope of Autonomy: Kant and the Morality of Freedom, focuses on the metaphysics and epistemology of action and the theoretical challenges posed by contemporary neuroscience.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations	p. xv
Introduction. Autonomy: Specification of a Term, Recognition of a Problem	p. 1
Kantian autonomy as co-legislation: a preliminary characterization	p. 6
The many faces of Kantian autonomy	p. 17
Nomos: the bond of freedom and the scope of autonomy	p. 24
Moral Knowledge: Pure Reason and the Law	p. 32
Kantian moral cognitivism: motivation for a defence	p. 35
Universalizability: A test for moral truths without moral facts	p. 44
Moral experience: the epistemic value of ordinary moral concepts	p. 49
Practical reason and apriority	p. 56
Moral Action: Motivation, Normativity, and Autonomous Willing	p. 63
Kant, reasons for action, and acting for a reason	p. 64
Reason in action: the psychological interpretation	p. 70
The metaphysics of agency: obligatoriness, inescapability, necessitation	p. 84
A cumulative argument: doxastic relevance and practical freedom	p. 93
Back to the everyday: motives, norms, and the ends of reason	p. 98
Freedom as Constraint: The Morality of Autonomy	p. 105
Subject to the law: difficulties with autonomy	p. 109
Practical identity, practical context, and the moral point of view	p. 118
Apriority, 'the dear selfÆ, and moral possibility	p. 130
Knowing Hearts: Emotion, Value, and Judgement	p. 142
Why emotions matter: Kantian austerity on trial	p. 145
Three Schillerian moral emotions and some contemporary rejoinders	p. 150
Autonomy and moral life: Kantian responses	p. 162
The Scope of Autonomy: Agency, Freedom, and Morality	p. 173
Authenticity, integrity, independence, freedom	p. 174
A Hegelian path to worldly agency and some obstacles	p. 185
The Kantian alternative: freedom and the 'causality of reason'	p. 191
Optimists and pessimists: context, practice, and the limits of theory	p. 202
Bibliography	p. 211
Index	p. 229
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