Personal Autonomy - New Essays on Personal Autonomy and Its Role in Contemporary Moral Responsibility

I've recently used this collection in a graduate seminar on individual autonomy and found it invaluable: together with some older articles from *The Inner Citadel* and Al Mele's book, it formed the backbone of the course. I'd also use the book for an undergraduate elective. The introduction is extremely helpful in charting the development of autonomy theory in analytic moral psychology since Frankfurt and Dworkin's essays some 36 years ago. All the essays are new, though some summarize the views developed by their authors over a larger body of work (e.g. Mele and Wolf). The volume includes a number of essays representating more rationalist and proceduralist ends of the spectrum, as well as coherence theories such as Ekstrom's. The essays on autonomy and free agency are all innovative, though I wish the contributors took the kind of autonomy to be analyzed as the freedom/control condition of responsibility for character. The book also includes four essays looking at applications of personal autonomy concepts to debates in political philosophy and bioethics. For more discussions focused on implications for political philosophy, one can turn to the collection by Christman and Anderson, which forms a great companion to James Taylor's volume. "Autonomy has recently become one of the central concepts in contemporary moral philosophy and has generated much debate over its nature and value. This is the first volme to bring together original essays that address the theoretical foundations of the concepts of autonomy, as well as essays that investigate the relationship between autonomy and moral responsibility, freedom, political philosophy, and medical ethics. Written by some of the most prominent philosophers working in these areas today, this book represents cutting-edge research on the nature and value of autonomy that will be essential reading for a broad range of philosophers as well as many psychologists."--BOOK JACKET Autonomy has recently become one of the central concepts in contemporary moral philosophy and has generated much debate over its nature and value. This is the first volume to bring together original essays that address the theoretical foundations of the concept of autonomy, as well as essays that investigate the relationship between autonomy and moral responsibility, freedom, political philosophy, and medical ethics. Written by some of the most prominent philosophers working in these areas today, this book represents cutting-edge research on the nature and value of autonomy that will be essential reading for a broad swathe of philosophers as well as many psychologists Autonomy has recently become one of the central concepts in contemporary moral philosophy and has generated much debate over its nature and value. This 2005 volume brings together essays that address the theoretical foundations of the concept of autonomy, as well as essays that investigate the relationship between autonomy and moral responsibility, freedom, political philosophy, and medical ethics. Written by some of the most prominent philosophers working in these areas, this book represents research on the nature and value of autonomy that will be essential reading for a broad swathe of philosophers as well as many psychologists. This volume brings together original essays addressing the theoretical foundations of the concept of autonomy, as well as essays investigating the relationship between autonomy and moral responsibility, freedom, political philosophy, and medical ethics. Written by prominent philosophers currently in these areas, the book represents cutting-edge research on the nature and value of autonomy and will be essential reading for a broad range of philosophers as well as psychologists.

first Volume To Bring Together Original Essays Addressing The Theoretical Foundations Of Concept Of Autonomy.