Autonomy

Summary

Dominique Pagani links autonomy to freedom in the modern sense, as Kant conceives it: drawing one's principles neither from God nor from nature1. For him, Rousseau is its forerunner. Nature and God form a given that makes man heteronomous, and Rousseau brings the idea that obeying the law one has prescribed for oneself is to be free2. From this he draws a distinction: doing what one pleases is not being free, since it still means following an external law, and so remaining heteronomous. In a 2021 question-and-answer session about an eco-cabin in a ZAD, he notes that the term recurs in current discourse, whether ecological, economic or personal, and that it can turn against freedom3. He then distinguishes Kantian autonomy from autonomy as it is understood today, which consists in making oneself independent of the rest of society4.

1. 1L for Liberty26 Dec 2014 · 6:15
2. 2#1.5 Between crisis and war: philosophising?10 Dec 2015 · 1:21:35
3. 3My eco-cabin in the ZAD: autonomy or alienation?30 Apr 2021 · 6:33
4. 4My eco-cabin in the ZAD: autonomy or alienation?30 Apr 2021 · 8:15

Summary produced automatically from 5 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.