Immanuel Kant and Paul Ricœur on Evil and Freedom

Olga Navrátilová

The article Immanuel Kant and Paul Ricœur on Evil and Freedom focuses on the problem of evil, understood as guilt, in its relation to human freedom. It was Immanuel Kant who developed, on a philosophical basis, the ethical concept of evil; however, his conceptualisation of evil with the help of a paradox reveals that he reached the limits of a consequent ethicisation of evil. These limits are then explored by Paul Ricœur, who points out the irreducibility of the tragic aspect of evil. The integration of the tragic element into a concept of evil does not necessarily lead to a loosening of the bond between evil and freedom, nor indeed to a denial of human freedom; rather, it indicates the limits of the understanding of freedom as mere autonomy.