ABSTRACT
There are a number of terms that, in common with ‘rationality’, suggest that people should not be unthinking adherents of a code of conduct or of opinions and beliefs laid down by others. Examples of such terms are ‘individuality’, ‘independence’, ‘self-determination’, and ‘self-direction’. These terms themselves may well not be synonymous but they have in common with each other the idea that what the individual does or thinks should be decided by himself. And this is so whether the notion of ‘self’ is explicit as in ‘self-direction’ or implicit as in ‘individuality’. For the purposes of this chapter I shall assume that they are synonymous and shall concentrate on the concept of self-determination.
