ABSTRACT
The discussion of Chapter 3 has left us with the following. An autonomous person not only has the capacity to make independent decisions about matters pertinent to the nature and the direction of her life but exercises this capacity. Such decisions concern, for example, a person’s choice of lifestyle, partners, and career. The autonomous person is not inclined to impose impediments to autonomy upon herself; on the contrary, she generally is disposed to live in a self-governed way.1 She has regulative control over her life, control of the sort that involves the power to do otherwise than one actually does. The possibility of practical change-the ability to revisit values and motives and choices and to live in a manner that manifests this revised outlook-is a crucial component of being an autonomous person.
