Self-ownership in Kant

Abstract

Legal dogmatics needs to philosophically examine its own problems. This text illustrates this through the cases of Kant and Stoicism, in which we can see how the modern idea according to which property also falls reflexively on oneself does not prevent the idea that since ancient times it was thought that one’s own body or life could be totally or partially disposable. With support from the secondary literature on Kant, here it is argued that, despite Kant’s contrary expressions, the human being is not only master of himself, but also owner of himself. It is also argued that such a property is only Kantian reasonable in a non-libertarian sense dependent on pure subjective whim, but broad and eo ipso circumscribed. In addition, an attempt is made to show that the duty towards oneself to preserve one’s life can coexist with self-ownership and even with an exceptional admission of suicide, which is an extreme manifestation of human self-ownership. Finally, it ends by suggesting that in this last question Kant seems to welcome some Stoic reflections.