Kant's Ethical Framework: Freedom, Reason, and Heteronomy

Kantian Concepts: A Priori, Freedom, and Ethics

A Priori and A Posteriori in Kant's Philosophy

The concept of a posteriori is not limited to the issue of knowledge; it is also present in Kant's ethics. In general, a priori is defined as that which does not originate from, or is mediated by, immediate experience. Conversely, a posteriori is that which has an empirical origin, lying in experience and ultimately in perception.

The Concept of Freedom

Theoretical reason cannot prove the existence of freedom. It is only able to grasp the phenomenal world, a world in which everything is subject to the law of causality, and therefore where everything happens by natural necessity.

Practical Reason and Moral Experience

However, from the perspective of practical reason, and if we are to understand moral experience, the defense of the existence of freedom is necessary. If people in their actions are determined by natural causes—that is, if there is no freedom—we cannot attribute responsibility, nor can we have moral behavior.

Ratio Essendi and Ratio Cognoscendi

In this way, freedom is the ratio essendi (the condition of the possibility) of morality, while morality is the ratio cognoscendi (that which gives us evidence or knowledge) of freedom.

The Critique of Pure Reason

Kant's most important book, Critique of Pure Reason, attempts to set limits on the exercise of reason that does not rely on experience but unfolds from itself.

Legitimate and Transcendent Use of Reason

Kant believed that the legitimate use of reason occurs when it is limited to the knowledge of empirical objects (as in Newtonian physics or mathematics)—objects which appear in our perceptual experience, whether internal or external. But when pure reason is used with the aim of achieving transcendent objects (physical or mental objects beyond human reason and its limits), it leads to contradictions and moral absurdities.

Heteronomy of the Moral Law

When the explanation of moral behavior describes morality as being based on some object of inclination (in any order of the faculty of desire), then the resulting ethical framework is a material ethics.

Material Ethics and External Authority

In this circumstance, the law that should govern the subject is given to it from outside. Examples of this external authority include:

• An alleged interpretation of the divine.
• Requirements imposed by the state on the individual.
• The world order to which the self must submit to satisfy its appetites.

The heteronomy of the moral law is the opposite of autonomy. When laws are heteronomous, the subject derives the law to which it is submitted from something outside itself. Material ethics are heteronomous.