ABSTRACT
Autonomy is not a term we often hear in everyday conversation. Nonetheless, it is a concept whose import is readily grasped. Assuming that conceptual unity is desirable, the central question becomes whether it is possible. A theory of autonomy must be tested against people's considered judgments, where this involves both our intuitions about how autonomous particular agents are, and people's expectations about the relationship between autonomy and other normative concepts. One of the key theoretical debates in the last decade has focused on the extent to which autonomy is relational. It is increasingly recognised that if autonomy is to function either as a political ideal, or as the basis for interpersonal respect, then it cannot presuppose an asocial self. Local autonomy is a matter of how autonomous an agent is with respect to a particular action or attitude. Global autonomy will prove to be most relevant as a threshold for consent, paternalism, and moral responsibility.
