Autonomy, Freedom and Rights: A Critique of Liberal Subjectivity

by Emilio Santoro

Overview

Autonomy, viewed as a subject's autonomous designing of her own distinctive 'individuality', is not a constitutive problem for liberal theory. Since its earliest formulations, liberalism has taken it for granted that protecting rights is a sufficient guarantee for the primacy of individual subjectivity. The most dangerous legacy of the 'hierarchical-dualist' representation of the subject is the primacy given to reason in defining an individual's identity. For Santoro freedom is not a fixed measure. It is not the container of powers and rights defining an individual's role and identity. It is rather the outcome of a process whereby individuals continuously re-define the shape of their individuality. Freedom is everything that each of us manages to be in his or her active and uncertain opposition to external 'pressures'.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789401708234
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	03/09/2013
Series:	Law and Philosophy Library , #65
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	516 KB

Table of Contents

1. Individual Autonomy and Freedom.- 2. A Genealogical Approach.- 3. Neo-Contractarianism and the Double Order of Desires.- Conclusion.- References.