Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nmvwc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-30T08:26:22.043Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rethinking Relational Autonomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Andrea C. Westlund
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

John Christman has argued that constitutively relational accounts of autonomy, as defended by some feminist theorists, are problematically perfectionist about the human good. I argue that autonomy is constitutively relational, but not in a way that implies perfectionism: autonomy depends on a dialogical disposition to hold oneself answerable to external, critical perspectives on one's action-guiding commitments. This type of relationality carries no substantive value commitments, yet it does answer to core feminist concerns about autonomy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , Fall 2009 , pp. 26 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Benson, Paul. 2005a. Taking ownership: Authority and voice in autonomous agency. In Autonomy and the challenges to liberalism: New essays, ed. Christman, J. and Anderson, J.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 101–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, Paul. 2005b. Feminist intuitions and the normative substance of autonomy. In Personal autonomy, ed. Taylor, J.S.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 124–42.Google Scholar
Bratman, Michael. 1999. Identification, decision, and treating as a reason. In Faces of intention: Selected essays on intention and agency. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 185–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bratman, Michael. 2000. Reflection, planning, and temporally extended agency. Philosophical Review 109 (1): 35–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bratman, Michael. 2001. Two problems about human agency. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 101:309–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bratman, Michael. 2003a. Autonomy and hierarchy. Social Philosophy and Policy 20 (2): 156–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bratman, Michael. 2003b. A desire of one's own. Journal of Philosophy 100 (5): 221–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bratman, Michael. 2007. Planning agency, autonomous agency. In Structures of agency. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 195–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christman, John. 1987. Autonomy: A defense of the split‐level self. Southern Journal of Philosophy 25 (3): 281–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christman, John. 1991. Autonomy and personal history. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 21 (1): 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christman, John. 2004. Relational autonomy, liberal individualism, and the social constitution of selves. Philosophical Studies 117 (1–2): 143–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christman, John. 2005. Procedural autonomy and liberal legitimacy. In Personal autonomy, ed. Taylor, J.S.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 277–98.Google Scholar
Christman, John, and Anderson, Joel. 2005. Autonomy and the challenges to liberalism: New essays. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dworkin, Gerald. 1988. The theory and practice of autonomy. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frankfurt, Harry. 1988. The importance of what we care about. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frankfurt, Harry. 1999. Necessity, volition, and love. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, Marilyn. 1986. Autonomy and the split‐level self. Southern Journal of Philosophy 24 (1): 19–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Marilyn. 1997. Autonomy and social relationships: Rethinking the feminist critique. In Feminists Rethink the Self, ed. Meyers, D.T.Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, pp. 40–61.Google Scholar
Friedman, Marilyn. 2003. Autonomy, gender, politics. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibbard, Allan. 1990. Wise choices, apt feelings. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kristinsson, Sigurdur. 2000. The limits of neutrality: Toward a weakly substantive account of autonomy. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 30 (2): 257–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKenzie, Catriona, and Stoljar, Natalie. 2000. Introduction: Autonomy refigured. In Relational autonomy: Feminist perspectives on autonomy, agency, and the social self, ed. MacKenzie, C. and Stoljar, N.New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 3–31.Google Scholar
Mansson McGinty, Anna. 2006. Becoming Muslim: Western women's conversions to Islam. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyers, Diana Tietjens. 1987. Personal autonomy and the paradox of feminine socialization. Journal of Philosophy 84 (11): 619–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyers, Diana Tietjens. 2004. Being yourself: Essays on identity, action, and social life. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Meyers, Diana Tietjens. 2005. Decentralizing autonomy: Five faces of selfhood. In Autonomy and the challenges to liberalism, ed. Christman, J. and Anderson, J.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 27–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 1991. Under western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses. In Third world women and the politics of feminism, ed. Mohanty, C.T., Russo, A., and Torres, L.Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, pp. 51–80.Google Scholar
Narayan, Uma. 2002. Minds of their own: Choices, autonomy, cultural practices, and other women. In A mind of one's own: Feminist essays on reason and objectivity, ed. Antony, L.M. and Witt, C.Cambridge, Mass.: Westview Press, pp. 418–32.Google Scholar
Oshana, Marina. 1998. Personal autonomy and society. Journal of Social Philosophy 29 (1): 81–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oshana, Marina. 2003. How much should we value autonomy? In Autonomy, ed. Paul, E.F., Miller, Fred D. Jr., and Paul, J.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 99–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oshana, Marina. 2006. Personal autonomy in society. Hampshire, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Schellenberg, Ingra. Unpublished comments.Google Scholar
Stoljar, Natalie. 2000. Autonomy and the feminist intuition. In Relational autonomy, ed. MacKenzie, C. and Stoljar, N.New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 94–111.Google Scholar
Taylor, James Stacey. 2005. Personal autonomy: New essays on personal autonomy and its role in contemporary moral philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, Gary. 1975. Free agency. Journal of Philosophy 72 (8): 205–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westlund, Andrea. 2003. Selflessness and responsibility for self: Is deference compatible with autonomy? Philosophical Review 112 (4): 37–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar