From Theory to Reality: Kant’s Autonomous vs. Levinas’s Heteronomous Ethics

Kant and Levinas’s point of departure in their works was the criticism of the Western tradition. The former proceeded to criticize a tradition that gives credit to object versus subject which ultimately leads to the spread of skepticism in epistemology and ethics. By referring to the Copernican Revolution and validating the subject both in ethics or epistemology, Kant seeks to guarantee the validity of knowledge on the one hand, and the applicability of ethics (where the agent of ethics is involved in its generation) on the other. Similarly, in the works of Levinas also the same attempts have been made, that is, he too proceeded to criticize the philosophical tradition in which “the same” and “self” are placed against “otherness” and “alterity”. He puts emphasis on both the Other and otherness and tries to build a metaphysic based on our relationship with the otherness (in a general sense) and other (in a specific sense). Levinas introduces “heteronomy” before Kant’s “autonomy” and builds ethics based on our relationship with the other. The present paper argues that in comparison with Levinas’s heteronomous ethics that relies on man’s sentiments and feelings, Kant’s autonomous ethics that emphasizes on a sort of common rationality among human beings seems to be more plausible and applicable in human society.