Liberation from Self: A Theory of Personal Autonomy

This is a detailed, sophisticated and comprehensive treatment of autonomy. Moreover it argues for a quite different conception of autonomy from that found in the philosophical literature. Professor Berofsky claims that the idea of autonomy originating in the self is a seductive but ultimately illusory one. The only serious way of approaching the subject is to pay due attention to psychology, and to view autonomy as the liberation from the disabling effects of physiological and psychological afflictions. A sustained critique of concepts such as moral autonomy, self-realisation, ideal autonomy, and identification is offered. The author replaces these with an alternative model that reveals how spontaneity, vitality and competence enable human beings to act in the real world.

• Berofsky offers a very different interpretation • Author is an established figure in the field • Inter-disiplinary – author takes account of much work in psychology

1. Introduction; 2. Freedom and autonomy; 3. Freedom of action; 4. Agent freedom; 5. Values and the self; 6. Autonomy and rationality; 7. Rationality, values and integrity; 8. The liberation theory of autonomy: objectivity; 9. The liberation theory of autonomy: the place of self; 10. The value of autonomy; Notes; Bibliography; Index.