Autonomy in History: Connecting the Principle of Morality to the Conception of Public Use of Reason

In his investigation on the grounds of morality Kant insists that the principle to judge our actions as moral must be a priori and therefore cannot be extracted from empirical contexts or particular historical facts. Considering the ideal character of this principle, designated as principle of autonomy, several interpreters of Kant’s practical philosophy saw a conflict between the a priori moral grounding and the political writings where morality is presented as the last step of the historical process of Enlightenment. In my paper I will address the following question: is it possible to conceive realization of moral autonomy without cultivation and civility of human beings in society? I intend to examine in what extent the concept of moral autonomy or self-legislation is linked to the historical development of human rational capacities in the political domain, in particular to the capacity to make free and public use of reason.