Hao Tran
htran170@ivc.edu
Intro to Philosophy
Notes: Phil 1
● Morality vs autonomy
○ Autonomy: following a law that comes from you, that you authored.
○ Heteronomy: following a law that comes from somewhere other than you.
○ The moral law is a law that we give ourselves, that comes from us.
○ This means that we are autonomous when we follow it.
● Heteronomy
○ We are being heteronomous when we follow the laws of a corrupt state, even
when they go against mostal law.
○ We are being heteronomous when we follow Gods commands. The moral law has
to be yours, not gods (though god is also bound by it)
○ We are being heteronomous when we act on our inclinations or desire. Although
these are a part of me, they are not my true self.
● Morality and freedom
○ The moral law must be a law you give yourself. If you were obeying laws that
someone else had authored, you would need an incentive to obey them.
○ This problem applies to gods wil. Why should i follow what god commands me to
do? If i m doing it out of fear of punishment, then im not doing it because it is
right. Such action would lack moral worth.
○ I am only free when i am autonomous, that is to make a law and follow it.
● Recoprocity thesis
○ Freedom is morality, and morality is freedom
● Kant’s idea of freedom
○ You are only truly free when you are being moral. Thats when you are obeying a
self-given law.
○ When you are simply doing what you want, then you are not free - you are
determined by your inclinations.
○ Against Humes idea of freedom as being determined by your inclinations (rather
than by external compulsion
● Nietzsche, genealogy first essay
● Friedrich nietzsche
○ Not a man of habit
○ He was trained as a philologist (of greek and latin)
○ He became a professor a the age of 25. He left the position 9 years later.
○ Travelled around europe and italy and the swiss mountains
○ Died 1900