La volontà santa e il Paradosso dell'autonomia

The present paper aims to consider the so-called “Kantian Paradox” and the contemporary debate around it from an original perspective, namely Kant’s idea of a holy will. To this aim, I will start by presenting the paradox of autonomy and some of the solutions that have been put forward by Kant scholars. Subsequently, I will introduce the concept of the holy will. First, I will argue that a complete analysis of the concept of autonomy cannot disregard the idea of a holy will. Second, I will zoom in on the notion of autonomy for a holy will and show how this concept should be characterised when referred to such a will. By showing that the holy will can be considered autonomous and free, I will be able to illustrate how this qualification poses a problem of completeness to many of the solutions of the paradox, for they mainly focus on the notion of a finite being. By the end of the paper, I will claim that one of the strategies to solve the paradox must be preferred over the others.