AUTONOMY

WHAT IS YOUR
IDEA ABOUT
AUTONOMY?
 HETERONOMY

AUTONOMY
 AUTONOMY
Kant claims that the property of the
rational will autonomy, which is the
opposite of heteronomy.

These three Greek words are instructive:

Autos = self
Heteros = other
Normos = law
 Definition
*Autonomy can be defined as "self-rule with
no control, undue influence or interference
from other"
*It is about respecting other peoples wishes
and supporting them in their desicions.
 AUTONOMY

"self-rule that is free from

both controlling interference
by others and from limitations
that prevent meaningful
choice."
 Consider the trivial example of brushing one's teeth, which
is not yet a moral dilemma but is sufficient to explain the
difference between autonomy and heteronomy.
When you were a child, did you like to brush your teeth? as far as
we can tell, children do not like to brush their teeth, but
parents
know that children should, to maintain oral hygiene.
So parents try to find ways to get their small children to brush
their teeth before going to bed, using a variety of
incentives or threats of undesirable consequences. "Hey, Ryan," a
mother tells her boy, "go and brush your teeth now
or else your teeth will rot!" "Come on now, Liza," a father
tells his daughter, "If you brush your teeth in five minutes, I
will let you play your computer game tonight."
 IN THE CASE OF RYAN AND
LIZA, ARE THEY AUTONOMOUS?
 Now think about Ryan and Liza twenty years
later when they are in their mid-twenties.
Suppose they brush their teeth every night
before they go to bed, and they do so without
the prodding of their parents. At a certain
point, perhaps when they were growing up as a
teenagers, they both reflected on the whole
business of brushing one's teeth. Both
concluded that they (1) agree with the
principle behind it (oral hygiene) and thus,
(2) every night they impose it upon themselves
to brush their teeth before going to bed.
 ARE THEY
AUTONOMOUS?
QUIZ:

Give 2 examples of autonomy and

heteronomy aside from the given
example to our discussion.