Autonomy in the Doctrine of Virtue
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14422/pen.v82.i318.y2026.001Keywords:
moral autonomy, autocracy, practical reason, duty, doctrine of virtueAbstract
In a 2018 text, Pauline Kleingeld points out the quasi-disappearance of the concept of autonomy in Kant’s Doctrine of Virtue (1797), and offers an evolutionary explanation for it, arguing that Kant understands moral autonomy in analogy with political sovereignty and that, at the time of the Grundlegung, this would imply a maxim that is universalizable in that it could work for all rational agents, while, in later works, Kant would have postulated that the law requires actual consent via parliamentary representation, making impertinent the analogy behind the moral notion of autonomy. The goal of this article is to defend, instead of such evolutionary perspective, a systematic explanation: in the Doctrine of Virtue the notion of autonomy appears minimally due to the location of this text in the architecture of Kant’s practical philosophy. In Tugendlehre the corresponding term is autocracy, since, at this level of development of the system of duties, what is relevant is not to establish the moral principle, but rather its application.
Downloads
References
Allison, Henry E. Kant’s Theory of Freedom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Baxley, Anne Margaret. Kant’s Theory of Virtue: The Value of Autocracy. Nueva York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1111/phiq.2013.63.issue-252
De Haro, Vicente.«El deber de beneficencia en Kant y Fichte». Ideas y Valores 69, n.º 174 (2020): 123-141. https://doi.org/10.15446/ideasyvalores.v69n174.67642
De Haro, Vicente. Duty, Virtue and Practical Reason in Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2015. https://doi.org/10.15581/009.51.34276
De Haro, Vicente. «La aclaración kantiana de la anfibología de los conceptos morales». Open Insight 10, n.º 19 (mayo-agosto de 2019): 41-59. https://doi.org/10.23924/oi.v10i19.352
Dean, Richard. The Value of Humanity in Kant’s Moral Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-019-09926-2
Himmelmann, Beatrix. Kants Begriff des Glücks. Kantstudien-Ergänzungshefte. Berlín: Walter de Gruyter, 2003. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110908121
Kant, Immanuel.Kant’s Gesammelte Schriften. Edición de la Königlich Preuβischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (actualmente Academia Alemana de las Ciencias). 29 vols. Berlín: Georg Reimer [posteriormente Walter de Gruyter], 1900-. Citado como AA.
Kant, Immanuel Abreviaturas utilizadas: FM (Fortschritte der Metaphysik), GMS (Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten), KpV (Kritik der praktischen Vernunft), KU (Kritik der Urteilskraft), MdS (Metaphysik der Sitten), RL (Rechtslehre), TL (Tugendlehre), VzM (Vorlesung zur Moralphilosophie).
Kant, Immanuel Metafísica de las costumbres. Estudio preliminar de Adela Cortina Orts. Traducción y notas de Adela Cortina y Jesús Conill. Madrid: Tecnos, 1989. Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Tugendlehre. Editado por Bernd Ludwig. Introducción de Mary Gregor. Hamburgo: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1990.
Kleingeld, Pauline. «The Principle of Autonomy in Kant’s Moral Philosophy: Its Rise and Fall». En Kant on Persons and Agency, editado por Eric Watkins, 61-79. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
König, Peter. Autonomie und Autokratie: Über Kants Metaphysik der Sitten. Berlín: Walter de Gruyter, 1994. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110876086
Paton, Herbert James The Categorical Imperative. Nueva York: Harper Torchbooks, 1967.
Rawls, John. «Themes in Kant’s Moral Philosophy». En Kant’s Transcendental Deductions, editado por Eckart Förster, 81-113. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503621619-009
Reath, Andrews. «Autonomy of the Will as the Foundation of Morality». En Agency and Autonomy in Kant’s Moral Theory, 121-172. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1369415400001503
Rivera, Faviola. Virtud y justicia en Kant. México: Fontamara, 2003.
Schneewind, Jerome B. La invención de la autonomía. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2009.
Schönecker, Dieter. Kants Begriff transzendentaler und praktischer Freiheit: Eine entwicklungsgeschichtliche Studie. Berlín: Walter de Gruyter, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110901290
Timmermann, Jens. Sittengesetz und Freiheit: Untersuchungen zu Immanuel Kants Theorie des freien Willens. Berlín: Walter de Gruyter, 2003. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110204810
Vigo, Alejandro G. Conciencia, ética y derecho: Estudios sobre Kant, Fichte & Hegel. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2011. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4304164
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The publishing Universidad Pontificia Comillas retain the copyright of articles published in Pensamiento. Reuse of content is allowed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivates 3.0 Unported. Authors are encouraged to publish their work on the Internet (for example, on institutional or personal pages, repositories, etc.) respecting the conditions of this license and quoting appropriately the original source.
