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Autonomy
In everyday life, we generally assume that we can make our own decisions on matters which concern our own lives. We assume that a life followed only according to decisions taken by other people, against our will, cannot be a well-lived life – we assume, in other words, that we are and should be autonomous. However, it is equally true that many aspects of our lives are not chosen freely: this is true of social relations and commitments but also of all those situations we simply seem to stumble into, situations which just seem to happen to us. The possibility of both the success of an autonomous life and its failure are part of our everyday experiences.
In this brilliant and illuminating book, Beate Roessler examines the tension between failing and succeeding to live an autonomous life and the obstacles we have to face when we try to live our life autonomously, obstacles within ourselves as well as those that stem from social and political conditions. She highlights the ambiguities we encounter, examines the roles of self-awareness and self-deception, explores the role of autonomy for the meaning of life, and maps out the social and political conditions necessary for autonomy. Informed by philosophical perspectives but also drawing on literary texts, such as those of Siri Hustvedt and Jane Austen, and diaries, including those of Franz Kafka and Sylvia Plath, Roessler develops a formidable defense of autonomy against excessive expectations and, above all, against overpowering skepticism.
Beate Roessler is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.
Dedication
For Rebecca
“Me wherever my life is lived, O to be self-balanced for contingencies”
Walt Whitman, “Me Imperturbe”
Autonomy
An Essay on the Life Well Lived
Beate Roessler
Translated by James C. Wagner
polity
Copyright Page
Originally published in German as Autonomie: Ein Versuch über das gelungene Leben © Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin 2017. All rights reserved by and controlled through Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin.
This English edition © Polity Press, 2021
The translation of this work was funded by Geisteswissenschaften International – Translation Funding for Work in the Humanities and Social Sciences from Germany, a joint initiative of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Office, the collecting society VG WORT and the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers & Booksellers Association)
Excerpt from The Sovereignty of Good, Iris Murdoch, Copyright © 1970, Routledge. Reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis Group.
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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3799-0 – hardback
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3800-3 – paperback
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Roessler, Beate, 1968- author. | Wagner, James C., translator.
Title: Autonomy : an essay on the life well lived / Beate Roessler ; translated by James C. Wagner.
Other titles: Autonomie. English
Description: English edition. | Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA, USA : Polity, [2021] | “Originally published in German as Autonomie. Ein Versuch ŭber das gelungene Leben Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin 2017.” | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “A rich philosophical examination of why it matters to live an autonomous life”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020042602 (print) | LCCN 2020042603 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509537990 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509538003 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509538010 (epub) | ISBN