H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr. interprete di Kant. A proposito di libertà e suicidio

This paper investigates the critical interpretation that Hugo Tristram Engelhardt Jr. gives of Kantian ethics: on the one hand Engelhardt relies on it and in particular on the principle of autonomy, on the other hand he criticizes the Kantian justification of freedom. From this different interpretation of freedom of will derives a different way of conceiving some fundamental concepts, including those of person and dignity (Würde). These concepts are now reinterpreted in a purely subjectivistic sense (i.e. according to an individualistic, not transcendental subjectivity), and therefore in an inevitably anti-Kantian sense. Similarly, Engelhardt's justification of suicide and assisted suicide stand in opposition to Kant's view.