Page 42 - GALIET KAFKABEL JOB, KANT AND MILTON: Omnipotence, Impotence and Rebellion IV+

Galiet & Galiet
Josef K yearns to be autonomous and self-directed, and his attempts to defend and vindicate himself are justified.221 It is intolerable to live in a world of arbitrary and random arrests without a valid warrant.222 It is a crime to be accused and arrested without justification.223 As soon as a sense of defiance and moral duty arises in Josef K, emulating Milton’s rebellion, and Kant’s predilection of moral duty over inclination, Josef K begins to ascend in virtues. He shares the spirit and values of the Age of Enlightenment and of the enlightened citizenry and commonwealth John Milton devoutly inculcated. Like Milton, Josef K grasps the good in evil, does away with superfluous inclinations, rationally224 defies, wills virtue over vice, perfects himself in rectitude and sobriety,225 and learns the true way to real liberty.226 He is firm and resolved in his plight, He fights for Milton’s civil liberties of conscience and expression, for justice.227 He denounces the Court’s oppression and corruption228 at the Court of Initial Inquiry (T38-52), at the Junk Room (T83-4), at Huld’s office (T192-7), at the cathedral (T223), as if he were Milton railing against King Charles I’s Court, or Job disputing against Yahweh’s Court. Josef K’s Kantian airs, too, flourish, as he defends Kant’s Principle of Autonomy and his three categorical imperatives: the Formulas of Universal and Natural Law, of Humanity, and of the Kingdom of Ends.229
Josef K becomes more intransigent against the Court, its injustice and absolutist powers (T49-52, 73). If Job wills to accuse “God’s terrifying injustice” (9:12-14, 9:20-21, 10:3, 14:16-17, 30:20-23), Josef K wills to defend “his rights” (T126). At this memorable instant, Josef K endorses Kant’s Universal and Natural Law Formula, and begins to “act as if the maxim of his [your] action was to become through his [your] will a universal of nature.”230 Josef K’s defense of autonomous rights as a worthy and permissible moral maxim, nullifies Kant’s theory of contradictions 3⁄4 Kant’s logic barometer that ensures his formulas prevail. Autonomous rights must prevail over arbitrary arrests, illegitimate and inaccessible proceedings, and inane and abusive Magistrates (T13-18). To universally will arbitrary, illegitimate proceedings and corrupt servants, or any man or Magistrate to have authority over another, is so inimical to autonomy and genuine liberty, that Kant’s Principle of Autonomy is natural to Josef K. Man, bound to self- legislated laws that conform to universal moral laws,231 cannot morally permit arbitrary trials, subjugation to corrupt
221 Jaffe, Adrian. The Process of Kafka’s Trial. Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 1967. 23
222 Jaffe, Adrian. The Process of Kafka’s Trial. Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 1967. 24
223 Jaffe, Adrian. The Process of Kafka’s Trial. Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 1967. 27
224 Milton says his mind is always “stronger than his body;” thus, he exerts himself to defend truth by reason and argument, or dialectic, and not by
persuasion or force. Milton. Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. By Merritt Y. Hughes. The Second Defense of the English People. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1957. 819
225 Milton. Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. By Merritt Y. Hughes. Areopagitica. 2nd Argument. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1957. 549, 559, 563
226 Milton.CompletePoemsandMajorProse.Ed.ByMerrittY.Hughes.TheSecondDefenseoftheEnglishPeople. Indianapolis:HackettPublishingCompany,Inc., 1957. 821
227 Milton encouraged the deposition and execution of King Charles I during his tumultuous days. Milton. Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. By Merritt Y. Hughes. Areopagitica. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1957. Milton. Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. By Merritt Y. Hughes. The Second Defense of the English People. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1957. 819
228 Milton. Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. By Merritt Y. Hughes. The Second Defense of the English People. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1957. 826
229 Although Brod’s biography does not mention whether Kafka read Kant’s works, I argue that Josef K’s principles participate to a great extent in Kant’s principle of autonomy and his three categorical imperatives. Kant. Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. Trans. By Mary Gregor. UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 421-34
230 Kant. GroundworkfortheMetaphysicsofMorals.Trans.ByMaryGregor. UK:CambridgeUniversityPress,1998.421
231 Kant argues that all efforts to find the principle of morality fails, because it is not the duty of man to be bound to laws, but to be bound only to self- legislated laws that conform to universal laws. Man is therefore bound to act only in conformity to his own will as long as he wills laws that are universal laws according to nature’s end. In this way, man is not constrained by a law that he has not willed, but by one that arises from his will. To Kant, the dignity of humanity consists just in this capacity to legislate and abide by a universal maxim that can be universalized into a law. Therefore, “Autonomy of the Will,” says Kant, is the property of the will by which it is a law to itself...” hence, “the principle of autonomy is therefore: to choose only such a way that the maxims of your choice are also included as universal law in the same volition. That this practical rule is an imperative...” One of Kant’s key examples is derived from the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans 2:14: “when Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these though not having the law, are a law to themselves.” Moreover, “a will whose maxims necessarily harmonize with the laws of autonomy is a holy, absolutely good will” which acts according to duty, an objective necessity. Kant. Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. Trans. By Mary Gregor. UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 432-33, 439-40
—42—