The Autonomy of the Will: Kant and Schopenhauer on the Aimlessness of Moral Action

Abstract

The author investigates the Kant’s and Schopenhauer’s moral theories concerning the aimlessness of moral action. These theories are considered as two «project» of impersonal ethics. General sense of these theories is the idea of the existential autonomy of the will. This idea distorts the essence of morality and casts doubt the reality of the subject of moral action. This is particularly evident when the idea of the autonomy of the individual (in Kant) develops into the conception of the autonomy of the world bases (in Schopenhauer). Due to the fact that these «projects» deny the authenticity of the axiological motivation of human action, they are necessarily opposed to all types of personalistic ethics.