Understanding Of Autonomy Research Articles

Out of the Doll's house: Reflections on autonomy and political philosophy1

Much modern liberal political theory takes the concept of autonomy as central and argues that political arrangements are to be assessed, in some part, by their ability to foster the development of individual autonomy understood as being the author of one's own life. This paper argues that so understood, autonomy is less important than is usually thought The liberal requirement that we ‘author’ our own lives disguises the importance of also being accurate readers of our own lives. I explore the metaphor of reading through a discussion of the character of Nora in Ibsen's Doll's Houseand argue that Nora's case demonstrates the limitations of the liberal understanding of autonomy as involving authorship of one's own life.

Autonomy, discourse, and power: a postmodern reflection on principlism and bioethics.

In recent years there has been an increasing critique of the philosophically based reasoning in bioethics which is known as principlism. This article seeks to make a postmodern contribution to this emerging debate by using notions of power and discourse to highlight the limits and superficiality of this abstract, rationalistic mode of reflection. The focus of the discussion will be on the principle of autonomy. Recent doctoral research on a hospice organization (Karuna Hospice Service) will be used to contextualize the debate to end-of life ethical dilemmas. The conclusion will be reached that the discursive richness of this organization's notion of autonomy or choice, which incorporates a holistic respect for the individual and the active creation of alternatives, can provide important insights to our understanding of autonomy in bioethics. The concern is raised that if autonomy is reified as a principle outside of the context of discourse, it may only complement the hegemonic power of biomedicine.

Autonomy: Open Door to Spirituality

This article attempts to clarify the connection between transactional analysis and spirituality. The content and meaning of autonomy are explored from different perspectives, and the Bernian understanding of autonomy and its components—awareness, spontaneity, and intimacy—are examined. The relationship between autonomy and intimacy is explained. From this relationship evolves a new dimension that goes beyond psychology—namely, spirituality. The authors' thinking may serve as a psychological complement to the theological reflections of Martin Buber as crystallized in his well-known book, I and Thou (1923/1958).

A Coherence Theory of Autonomy

To be autonomous is to be self-governed. An individual acts autonomously when he acts on his own reasons. Thus, in order to understand autonomous action, we must know what it is for a reason to count as one's own; and thus, we need a working conception of what constitutes 'the self'. In this paper, I propose a conception of the self and a coherentist theory of autonomous action. I focus here on autonomy rather than on freedom. In so doing, I aim to limit the discussion to one of the two features of which any plausible analysis of freedom ought to give some account: (i) the availability of alternative possibilities, and (ii) self-determination.' The first condition is meant to capture the idea that, in order for an agent's act at a particular time to be performed freely, it must be the case that the agent can do otherwise than that act at that time. Discussions about the correct interpretation of this feature center on ambiguities in the word 'can'. The second condition is the requirement of autonomy: a free act, as opposed to an unfree act, is one that results from the agent herself (or, from the state of affairs of her being a certain way), rather than from something external to her. My understanding of autonomy is motivated primarily by two considerations. First is the fact that we, as persons, not only have beliefs and desires, but we have the capacity to reflect on our desires and beliefs, forming attitudes toward them.2 These higher-order mental states (that is, mental states that have as their intentional object another mental state) are prominent in

Nietzsche on Autonomy and Morality: The Challenge to Political Theory

Nietzsche's challenge to political theory can be located in his claim that autonomy and morality are mutually exclusive. In this paper an examination of Kant's attempt to ground a notion of autonomy through constructing a metaphysic of morals is followed by a consideration of Nietzsche's understanding of autonomy in terms of a notion of supra-moral sovereign individuality. A genealogy of morals represents an attempt to historicize the key notions of moral and political theory. Nietzsche's aristocratic conception of sovereign individuality is seen in terms of the value-basis on which sovereign individuals are to construct a common ethical and political identity and enter into social relationships. Foucaultian and feminist attempts to construct an ethics and politics of difference and a recent attempt to construct a post-modern conception of agency based on a synthesis of Nietzsche's philosophy of power and Kant's ethics are examined.

Population and Resources Under the Socialist Economic System

The socialist economic system has mortality impacts that are specific to its methodology. These specific mortality impacts are both related to and independent of environmental hazards. The most conspicuous of these impacts is relatively high and rising mortality among prime working age groups. This is due in part to the high incidence of industrial accidents under the state owned monopolistic production system. Another factor is local environmental degradation in areas of large scale development projects. Socialist economies are characterized by high resource intensity high volume of inputs per unit of outputs and relatively low productivity of resources. Because high volumes of resource inputs in processing over the production cycle entails high emission of polluting residuals the impact on human health is very high. The socialist system demonstrates that population growth economic development and environmental impact are 3 distinct outcomes of the way human societies organize their structures. Since nature manages itself we must develop ways of organizing ourselves that do not disturb this automatic natural management of the biosphere. In practical terms this means that centralized control is inferior to an open system. This can be seen in the compilation of legal political and economic subsystems in socialist societies. When all the systems are fused together they cannot adapt properly. Thus the resolution of the imbalance between population and resource lies in an ecological understanding of autonomy as an intrinsic feature of differentiation that must extend to the interface with our natural environment and in the internal organization of society.