Publisher's Synopsis
Autonomy and Equality: The problem of contemporary political theory The Kantian notion of autonomy, expressed through the capability of human beings to give themselves, as "co-legislators", universally applicable moral laws, has been one of the most influential theoretical positions in the history of philosophy. Not only does it ground the comprehensive moral theory of Immanuel Kant, including his anthropological and political writings, but it has also inspired a litany of interpretations. In this thesis I explore some of the interpretative measures that have been provided in the attempts to produce a realisable and practicable political philosophy based on the Kantian conception of autonomy. While sympathetic to the Kantian position, this thesis takes up a critical perspective inspired by the work of Jacques Rancière. Explicitly drawing on Rancière's radical pedagogical work, as well as his conception of parapolitics, I seek to expose the paradoxes of equality that problematise the implementation of the, as I see it, radical conception of autonomy at the heart of Kant's political theory, within constructions of the social and political theories of John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas and Rainer Forst. These paradoxes I call the emancipation paradox
