Fashion, Autonomy, and Kant’s Notion of Duty

Abstract In order to discern how the modern subject acquires a moral disposition, which is indispensable to the Kantian transition [ Übergang ] from nature to freedom and morality, this article highlights the difference between a predisposition to a mere blind imitation and a disposition to imitating others in the name of X. It is through the process of abstraction that mere social mimicry transforms into pursuing X for X’s sake alone, which further develops into adopting duty for duty’s sake. Succinctly put, following X for the sake of X alone at the stage of culture prepares the modern subject to conform to what is considered to be virtuous in a given society. This article further elaborates on that argument by probing fashion not just as an object of sensibility but as a manifestation of social phenomena that are occasioned by the autonomous will to follow what is in fashion and by uncovering that the pursuit of fashion for fashion’s sake alone has a strong bearing on increasing the strength of will to autonomously perform a duty of virtue.