Autonomy and Personal History
Abstract
Virtually any appraisal of a person’s welfare, integrity, or moral status, as well as the moral and political theories built on such appraisals, will rely crucially on the presumption that her preferences and values are in some important sense her own. In particular, the nature and value of political freedom is intimately connected with the presupposition that actions one is left free to do flow from desires and values that are truly an expression of the ‘self-government’ of the agent. However, we all know that no person is self-made in the sense of being a fully formed and intact ‘will’ blossoming out of nowhere. Our values and preferences are explained by essential reference to a variety of influences that have come to bear on our development throughout our personal histories. What is needed, then, is to establish an account of self-determination or autonomy that would help determine just when and if the values and preferences we find ourselves with deserve the centrality that moral and political theories place on them.
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From AI, Opacity, and Personal Autonomy (2022) · cites this paper as Christman, 1991
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- Authors
- Christman, J.
- Affiliations
- Virginia Tech (US)
- Corresponding author
- Christman, John
- ORCID
- Christman, John
- Venue
- Canadian Journal of Philosophy
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1991-03
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-24
- ISSN
- 0045-5091 (ISSN-L)
- 1911-0820
- OpenAlex
- W1508410088
- Cited by
- 422
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 37 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 13.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Canadian Journal of Philosophy (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophical Ethics and Theory
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political Philosophy and Ethics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics and bioethics in healthcare
- Keywords
- autonomy, self-determination, personal history, self-government, political freedom, moral status, values and preferences, moral agency
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