Kant and Austen on Free Love
Abstract
Successful fulfillment of duties of love-including those duties of love pointed toward that other who is, or is potentially, one’s romantic partner-requires that one acquire a high level of freedom: successful loving requires that one express one’s basic capacity for free choice in one’s will and character, through the accomplishment of what Kant calls “inner freedom” or “autocracy.” The composed person of inner freedom-that person who not only respects others but who has also gotten a hold of herself and is thus not ruled by her affects and passions- is best situated to fulfill the other-centered requirements of love: maintaining attentiveness to and loving concern for the situation of the other. I conclude by illustrating this idea in an analysis of the characters of Mary and Anne Eliot in Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
Abstract
Successful fulfillment of duties of love-including those duties of love pointed toward that other who is, or is potentially, one’s romantic partner-requires that one acquire a high level of freedom: successful loving requires that one express one’s basic capacity for free choice in one’s will and character, through the accomplishment of what Kant calls “inner freedom” or “autocracy.” The composed person of inner freedom-that person who not only respects others but who has also gotten a hold of herself and is thus not ruled by her affects and passions- is best situated to fulfill the other-centered requirements of love: maintaining attentiveness to and loving concern for the situation of the other. I conclude by illustrating this idea in an analysis of the characters of Mary and Anne Eliot in Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Abbreviations VII
- Introduction 1
- What’s So Special About Legalized Sex? (Or, How Can Two Wrongs Make a Right?) 17
- Animal Desire and Rational Nature: Kant’s Argument for Marriage and the Problem of ‘Unnatural’ Sex 35
- How to Have Good Kantian Sex 63
- Kant and Austen on Free Love 85
- Kant on Menschenliebe as a Moral Predisposition of the Mind 107
- From Self-Preservation to Cosmopolitan Friendship: Kant and the Conceptual Structure of Love 127
- Kant on Friendship and Misanthropy 149
- Friendship as a Scaffolding Duty to the Highest Good 165
- Index of Persons 187
- Index of Subjects 189
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Abbreviations VII
- Introduction 1
- What’s So Special About Legalized Sex? (Or, How Can Two Wrongs Make a Right?) 17
- Animal Desire and Rational Nature: Kant’s Argument for Marriage and the Problem of ‘Unnatural’ Sex 35
- How to Have Good Kantian Sex 63
- Kant and Austen on Free Love 85
- Kant on Menschenliebe as a Moral Predisposition of the Mind 107
- From Self-Preservation to Cosmopolitan Friendship: Kant and the Conceptual Structure of Love 127
- Kant on Friendship and Misanthropy 149
- Friendship as a Scaffolding Duty to the Highest Good 165
- Index of Persons 187
- Index of Subjects 189
