ABSTRACT
The cumulative network model (CNM) of the self says that a self is at least partially socially constituted. What does that entail for autonomy or self-governance? CNM proposes that autonomy be conceptualized in terms of a capacity for norm-generation, execution, and assessment. That might mean endorsing existing, internalized norms, but it can also mean revising and inventing the norms by which a self governs or rules itself. This is possible because a self has the capacity to take a perspective on itself and reflexively communicate with itself. Autonomy or self-rule does not require independence from social locations or self-perspectives, but rather, in reflexive communication, involves the capacity to partially detach from one role or perspective, to perform a legislating, executive, and assessing (and re-assessing) function with respect to it, to other aspects of the self, or to the self as a whole. The chapter develops this idea by deploying an analogy to the notion of autonomy for a State. The chapter also considers issues concerning authenticity and subjective authority, and concludes with a comparison and contrast to some current proceduralist and substantivist accounts of autonomy.
