The Department of Philosophy is excited to invite you to our last Colloquium of this academic year . The lecture will be given by Dr. Lucy Allais, Miller Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University.
Lucy Allais is a philosopher who holds academic positions at both the University of the Witwatersrand and Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests include the philosophy of Immanuel Kant as well as forgiveness, punishment, and bioethics.
Time: April 14, 2023, 3-5pm
Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/61791002075?pwd=ZjBrWEw3dVVWMlhRa3lCOUl0SjhHZz09
Talk Title: “Human free agency: the intersection of the metaphysical, moral and political in Kant’s account”
Abstract: My aim in this paper is to think about Kant’s account of human free agency by looking at the different parts of his complex account in relation to each other. His account includes the transcendental idea of a causal spontaneity, the moral idea of acting under reason’s highest principle, and the political idea of acting in conditions of non-domination. It thus sees free agency as a partly metaphysical and partly normative notion. My hope is to try to make progress in understanding his account by thinking about the relations between these different components of freedom, taking autonomy as the anchor point. Looking in one direction (from practical freedom to metaphysics), my question is how to understand his account of autonomy such that it requires transcendental freedom. Looking in the other direction (from practical freedom to politics), my question is how to understand the relation between Kant’s account of autonomy, his claim that each human has an innate right to be their own master, and his principle of right. I explore these ideas under the assumption that Kant’s account of autonomy is part of a unified complete account which includes transcendental freedom and external freedom.
