01
"The word autonomy derives from the two Greek words auto ("self") and nomos ("law"). The term was originally applied to political entities in ancient Greece: An autonomous city-state, such as Athens, was one that laid down its own laws rather than having them imposed on it by some outside authority (e.g., by the Persians). Similarly, and as elaborated by the famous German philosopher Immanuel Kant, an autonomous person is someone who determines his or her own maxims or rules for action and acts in accordance with them. So an autonomous person, like an autonomous city-state or nation-state, is self-legislating."
2018
02
"Moral autonomy, usually traced back to Kant, is the capacity to deliberate and to give oneself the moral law, rather than merely heeding the injunctions of others. Personal autonomy is the capacity to decide for oneself and pursue a course of action in one's life, often regardless of any particular moral content. Political autonomy is the property of having one's decisions respected, honored, and heeded within a political context."
03
"Even autonomous persons who have self-governing capacities and are, on the whole, good managers of their health sometimes fail to govern themselves in particular choices because of temporary constraints caused by illness, depression, ignorance, coercion, or other conditions that limit their judgment or their options. An autonomous person who signs a consent form for a procedure without reading or understanding the form has the capacity to act autonomously, but fails to so act in this circumstance."
1979
