Autonomy of Will : A Kantian Approch
Journal Title: Research Journal of Philosophy & Social Sciences - Year 2017, Vol 0, Issue 2
Abstract
Autonomy of the will is the hallmark of morality and Kant held the supreme position as far as autonomy of the will of moral agent is concerned. According to Kant, to inquire the worth of morality would be futile if the moral agent does not enjoy the autonomy of the will. In this sense, the foundation of morality actually rests on the autonomy of the will of the moral agent. Autonomy of will means the freedom of the will of the individual or moral agent. The moral agent must be free. Otherwise, his action would be vitiated by external factors, what may be termed as ‘moral luck’, according to Nagel. The moral agent must be pure in thought. He is guided by moral imperative what has been termed as ‘categorical imperative’ by Kant. According to Kant, categorical imperative is an unconditional urge arising from within. It is purely guided by practical reason. As categorical imperative is unconditional, it must be universalizable as well. Since moral rules are guided by categorical imperative, moral rules are universalizable in nature. Kant thus offered us a deontological approach of morality where an action is performed by a moral agent not as a ‘means to an end, but as an end it itself’. To act as an end in itself means to act as ‘duty for duty sake’. This cannot be done by a moral agent if he is not a responsible moral agent. Thus, autonomy of the will or freedom of the will is deeply associated with the responsibility of the moral agent. Many would say that freedom and responsibility are polar concepts. Kant does not think so. For Kant, autonomy of the will is coherent with the responsibility of the moral agent. A moral agent cannot be autonomous in Kantian moral perspective if he is no longer a responsible moral agent. Thus, the development of a moral agent is bestowed in his own identity and autonomy. A moral agent by virtue of being a moral agent must be autonomous. He equally enjoys identity. Autonomy and identity ensures the development of moral agent. In such a case he will follow the rules which are universalizable in nature. For Kant, a moral agent must act on the basis of the conformity of rules. He then says, act only with the maxim so that it will become a universal law. Universalizability is the hallmark of morality. It states whatever is good to you in a particular situation; it would remain good to every other in the same situation without exception. This cannot be happened if moral principle would be circumstantial and evoked in situation. This is where the sanctity of the autonomy of the will of moral agent actually hinges on. The main objective of this paper is to exemplify how the trio-concepts autonomy, identity and development can be comprehended within the horizon of Kantian concept ‘autonomy of the will’.
Authors and Affiliations
Hasen Ali Ahmed
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP515886
- DOI -
- Views 138
- Downloads 0
Value Oriented Education : Role of Teacher Education in Promoting Value Education
The function of true education is to build an integrated personality and values are the integral to the process of education. Value education in also an education in the sense that it is the education for ‘becoming’. Thi...
Civilization and Culture
Disasters are as old as human history but the dramatic increase and the damage caused by them in the recent past have become a cause of national and international concern. India is one of the ten worst disaster prone cou...
Jeevan Bindi : Issues and Challenges
The Jeevan Bindi or the Life-Saving Dot seems like a brilliantly simply idea. According to the claimers the iodine-coated bindis will provide users with their daily dose of the essential element through the skin on their...
The Woman Characters in the Select Fiction of Alice Walker
This paper proposes to highlight the women characters in the selected fictions of Alice Walker and examine them closely so as to analyze their uniqueness, similarities and qualities in representing the African American w...
Playing and Watching Video games – Impact on the Problem Solving and Pro Social Behavior of Middle School Students
he research article aimed on the positive effects of video games while playing and watching videogames on the problem solving and pro social behavior. The present experimental study was based on forty five boys and forty...