Autonomy and Self-Reliance: Kant Vs. Emmerson

The Autonomy of Self-Reliance

In the late eighteenth century, with the publication of his theories on morality, Immanuel Kant revolutionized philosophy in a way that greatly impacted the decades of thinkers after him. The result of his influence led to perceptions and interpretations of his ideas reflected in the works of writers all around the world. Kant’s idealism stems from a claim that moral law, a set of innate rules within each individual, gives people the ability to reason, and it is through this that people attain truth. These innate rules exist in the form of maxims: statements that hold a general truth. Using this, Kant concluded with the idea of autonomy, in which all rational human wills are autonomous, each individual is bound by their own will and in an ideal society, people should operate only according to their reason. Influenced by Kant’s ideas, an american writer by the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote his own call to individual morality through an essay on Self-Reliance. In “Self-Reliance”, Emerson tells individuals to trust in their own judgments, act only according to their own wills, and to use their own judgment to determine what is right. Emerson’s Self-Reliance and Kant’s autonomy differ to the extent of where reason comes from. However, they agree on its purpose in dictating the individual’s judgment and actions. As a result, Autonomy and Self-Reliance have essentially the same message. Both Kant and Emerson agree that the individual should trust only their own reason, that they are bound only by their own free will, and that the actions of an individual should be governed by reason.

The main difference between Emerson’s Self-Reliance and Kant’s autonomy rests in their perception of ...

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...tion to self-dependence, Kant and Emerson also agree that individuals should act independent of others. Both argue that the individual is bound by their own will and no one else’s. Furthermore, the main ideas of Self-Reliance and Autonomy are the same: that the individual should use reason to determine whether something is right or wrong. While Emerson states that people should evaluate truths for themselves rather than just accepting things that others say, Kant encourages people to use their reason to determine what is right and wrong. The two agree that ideas force you to use your reason to make judgments and formulate your own ideas. Despite their differing views on what reason is, Kant and Emerson agree on the structure and process by which people should make judgments and live life. As a result, Self-Reliance and Autonomy are essentially the same idea.