Abstract

In this paper, my aim is to furnish a possible interpretation of “independence” in terms of “self-dependence or dependence on our proper self” in the context of Kant’s philosophy. In order to do this, I will primarily focus on the concept of independence as based on the human being’s noumenal personality and as expression of the human being’s “proper self” (_eigentliches Selbst_). This concept will be contrasted with the one of dependence upon the human being’s animality (_Tierheit_). In this way, I will present independence in terms of the human being’s independence from its sensible, animal nature, but nonetheless as a form of _dependence_: namely, the human being’s dependence on its rational nature.