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Freedom From Kantʹs Standpoint

This article aims at investigating freedom from the standpoint of one of the great thinkers of the West who has had a great influence on the frame of thought of the philosophers after him. 1. First different viewpoints concerning human freedom especially in a scientific framework including: (a) strong determinism, (b) moderate determinism and (c) voluntarism have been examined. 2. Different definitions of freedom. Then freedom from Kantʹs standpoint has been investigated in the realms of both pure reason and practical reason. He believes that freedom in the realm of pure reason is one of the contradicitions of pure reason and thus it is a disputed issue. But Kant proposes his fundamental theory of freedom in the realm of practical reason and present the principle of morality which manifests itself in the conception of autonomy as follows: act in such a way that the will can consider itself as the legislator of the general law by the command of the will. Kant calls this principle autonomy as opposed to heteronomy. Autonomy means that one makes a law for himself while heteronomy means that a law is made by an external force or someone other than the self. Following these, various issues concerning the principle of freedom and the natural need for the imperative concept of freedom, different kinds of heteronomy and the presupposition of freedom as the characteristic feature of the will of rational beings have been investigated. Kant come up with some conclusions which can hardly be believable since he believes that only the laws which have been made by man are congruent with human freedom. Finally, in this article freedom has been examined from Islamic point of view.