Moral autonomy and autonomy at the public sphere in Kant

• Grant number: 12/21422-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: November 28, 2012
• End date: January 27, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Ethics
• Principal Investigator: Monique Hulshof
• Grantee: Monique Hulshof
• Host Investigator: Jean-François Kervégan
• Host Institution: Centro de Pesquisa. Universidade São Judas Tadeu (USJT). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France

Abstract

As part of a broader research project, which aims to examine how Kant articulates the concepts of moral autonomy and of autonomy in the public sphere and to analyze the consequences of this articulation for Kant's conception of Right, this research project for two months at the University Paris 1 intends to do - besides the large bibliographical survey for the project as a whole - the initial investigation on the concept of autonomy in moral and political domains. Returning to the analyses, carried out at the end of our PhD thesis, about the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and the Critique of practical reason, we'll try to understand some political elements present in the concept of moral autonomy and to discuss how Kant can affirm that, in moral judgment, the subject represents his will as a member of a "legislative body". In a second moment, based on the reading of Onora O'Neill in Constructions of Reason, we intend to explore these political elements present in the concept of autonomy, investigating how Kant understands the exercise of autonomy in the public sphere, or what he calls "public use of reason", in the texts "An answer to the question: What is Enlightenment?", "What is Orientation in Thinking?" and in The Conflict of the Faculties. (AU)