AUTONOMY: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CONCEPT

No other concept has played such a decisive role in the history of ethical thought as that of autonomy. It reached maturation in modern moral philosophy, within a theory of the ethical subject, but in fact autonomy has a much longer history. Its origins can be traced to the culture of classical antiquity, which made use of the concept in a paradigm of thought distinct from that existing today. The approach was primarily of a political character in that the concept of autonomy served to characterize the nature and identity of sociopolitical entities (e.g. cities), which, albeit maintaining their relationship to the state (Athens) and recognizing its primacy, claimed their independence and the right to enact their own laws (Thucydides and Herodotus).

Later, in the European context of the seventeenth century wars of religion, the concept of autonomy returned in the form of a legal-political notion. It affirmed the ability of every individual to exercise his right to freedom of religion and conscience. Moreover, the social aspect of autonomy was claimed as a condition for the existence and development of single spheres of individual and collective life, within the community of states. As the modern idea of state developed in Europe, the concept of autonomy accompanied the history of emancipation and the liberation of individual life from the arrogant and destructive supremacy of dictatorial notions in politics as in social life.