Kantian Courage:Advancing the Enlightenment in Contemporary Political Theory: Advancing the Enlightenment in Contemporary Political Theory

Conclusion: The Battle for Autonomy

The conclusion reviews the historical debate about the meaning of autonomy to enter the contemporary one. Many contemporary Kantians seek to counter the charge of relativism or nihilism by maintaining that Kant provides a true account of morality for imperfectly rational being such as ourselves. The problem with this approach is that it freezes Kantianism-and the Enlightenment-in its original eighteenth-century form. The task of autonomy requires those inspired by Kant's writings to think creatively about how to welcome new religious constituencies into the twenty-first century Enlightenment.