The Practical Manifestation of Kant’s Concept of Autonomy in Moral Behavior

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_106How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Kant; Autonomy; Heteronomy; Moral Behavior; Over-moralizations

Abstract

Kant’s concept of autonomy emphasizes that morality stems from the self-legislation of rational beings. In the form of “categorical imperative”, it requires that the maxims of actions have the possibility of universal legislation, and regards human beings as ends in themselves rather than means. This concept not only completes the transformation of ethics from external norms to internal legislation, but also establishes the core status of moral subjectivity. Research shows that autonomy is specifically manifested in the universalization test of maxims, respect for ends, and the self-legislation of the will in individual moral judgment. However, in real-world practice, it faces challenges such as the impact of sensibility and over-moralization. By analyzing the path of cultivating autonomy with the assistance of heteronomy, this paper reveals the dialectical relationship between autonomy and heteronomy, providing a theoretical reference for the moral construction of modern society. As a moral force that is continuously generated and realized in practice, Kant’s concept of autonomy has important enlightenment significance for solving contemporary moral dilemmas.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Mingxia Sun
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/07
TI  - The Practical Manifestation of Kant’s Concept of Autonomy in Moral Behavior
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 12th International Conference on Digital Humanities and Frontiers in Social Sciences (DHFSS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 981
EP  - 988
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_106
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-611-6_106
ID  - Sun2026
ER  -