ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I want to discuss how an ethics of empathic caring can make sense of the notion of autonomy and of the related notion of respect. Kantians often say that we owe people respect on the basis of their autonomy (or their moral worth or dignity) as rational beings, and so they conceive respect for individuals as respect for their autonomy.1 But the idea that we owe people respect is broader than the Kantian tradition. It seems intuitively plausible to suppose that we ought to respect other people and (also) that we should respect their autonomy, and I think an ethics of care needs to make sense of these notions. But I shall be reversing the Kantian order of explanation. Respect is respect for autonomy (or for the capacity for autonomy), and if we can first understand respect, I think we can use that understanding to clarify what autonomy is.
