Autonomy is one of the central aspirations of our time, yet there is a growing worry that autonomy, as we have understood and practised it, has not liberated us but subjected us to new forms of domination. In his ground-breaking reinterpretation of Kant and Hegel, Thomas Khurana reveals the source of these problems in the very concept of autonomy and develops a new understanding of human self-determination. While the dominant conception of autonomy gives rise to the paradox of self-legislation and remains caught up in a dualistic opposition of freedom and nature, we can overcome these problems by understanding freedom as a form of life. Elaborating both Kant's and Hegel's compelling concepts of life, Khurana shows that we are not autonomous despite or against our living nature, but by inhabiting it in the right way. To understand freedom, we need a critical theory of our second nature.

‘Khurana's gem of a book epitomizes the power of doing philosophy through careful, critical reflection on its history. Drawing on a thorough command of Kant, Hegel, and broad range of more recent figures, Khurana offers an innovative take on the Idealists' insights into both the principles and the actualization of freedom – understood as the freedom of living, not merely thinking or acting, beings.'

Sebastian Rand - Georgia State University

‘Khurana's book is a landmark achievement in the study of the development of German idealism from Kant to Hegel. Those already deeply into the field will have much to learn from it, and newcomers are well advised to begin here.'

Terry Pinkard - Georgetown University