Definition of Individual Autonomy
Individual autonomy is basically defined as the condition or state in which actions of a person are self directed. The person who practices individual autonomy has complete authority over his or her choices and actions; specifically an autonomous person bases his decision completely on his views and ideas when the decision is of significant importance. Sense of individual autonomy can also be referred as a property of person’s desires or acts when they are considered individually, these acts or desires pertains to the manner in which a person behaves or acts in a particular situation 1. Elaboration of the concept
In order to further elaborate the concept of autonomy we can also say that an autonomous person is one who is self-driven and sets goals and missions for his life, here goals and missions specifically refers to those goals which a person has selected by his own will from a variety of options and for achievement of these goals he sets certain milestones which he plans to achieve over a period of time. Autonomy or following self carved direction is also sometimes termed as positive freedom. It is not simply independence from following direction which is dictated by others but it is the sort of positive liberty which is strongly associated with ability and desire of self governance or psychological resources for self-esteem or self-directedness 2. Individual autonomy as explained above is all about living one’s life according to ones values and parameters of life, it basically gives you a mindset of completely holding reins of your life in your own hands and make your decisions on your own, but individual autonomy has always faced and conflict with obligation to conform to community expectations 3. No matter how strong one is a follower of individual autonomy but at some point of life he will face this issue since being a part of a particular society one cannot totally ignore the norms, culture and traditions and acceptance of these cultures comes at a cost of giving your rights to be individual autonomous.
Life Goals
Life Goals Essay Ever since I was a child I could lose myself to video games. I would often feel like I was a part of the reality just on the other side of the glass. I would always find myself fascinated by the creations and designs that came from the sci-fi games I played. I could play for hours on end because I felt like I was part of the universe, much like how people can become part of the ...
We can also say that an autonomous person is one which has an individual knowledge of his or her circumstances and of all those sources which can be operational under these circumstances. The major advantage which an autonomous person enjoys is that he has the capacity to make decisions about all of the matters which are related to the goals and milestones of his life 4. There are also cases in which right of a person to live a life of individual autonomy is taken forcefully, but that’s a separate context and is out of the scope of this paper therefore in this paper we will just focus on the conflict of right of individual autonomy of a person and its conflict with the pressure of society to conform to its expectations5. In the below section we will discuss an example to further understand that how right of individual autonomy of a person comes heavily in conflict with obligations to conform to the expectations of the society. Reason why individual autonomy comes in conflict with culture Basic reason why acceptance of all culture values, traditions and obligations to conform to community expectations comes in conflict with ones right of practicing individual autonomy is that individual autonomy requires you to lead your life according to your own values and make your decisions completely yourself whereas when one consider society expectations as an important parameter than all of the decisions which he takes regarding his or her life are than somehow dictated or influenced by the expectations of society, therefore researchers and psychologists consider it almost impossible that people can perform individual autonomy at the same that they can conform completely to the expectations of the society 6 .
The Essay on Individual autonomy and social structure
In “Individual Autonomy and Social Structure”, Dorothy Lee discusses how in today’s society, it is “difficult to implement human dignity in the everyday details of living.” (pg.5, Lee) However, Lee discusses how by analysing different cultures and how they deal with similar situations, it is possible to come up with a solution for this society. The key social problem Lee addresses is the conflict ...
Example to prove that individual autonomy comes in conflict with obligations to conform to expectations of society Now let us consider example in which we will focus and highlight that how individual autonomy comes heavily in conflict with the obligation to conform to expectations of the society. Let us consider example of a woman who is half French and half German but has been bought in Japan and USA so she has a mixed Japanese and American accent since she inhabits a mixed culture so it’s difficult for her to perform individual autonomy because in America if she lives like American than her looks don’t go with her American lifestyle and people have problems with that even if she lives in Germany than people have problem with her accent they often praise her for her looks but they always pity her for her accent and this factor of cultural differences never let her to perform individual autonomy which she always wanted to practice 7. Since Individual autonomy as explained above is all about living one’s life according to ones values and parameters of life, completely holding reins of your life in your own hands and making your decisions on your own therefore in case of above example the right of individual autonomy of the woman in discussion is coming heavily in conflict with the obligations to conform to community expectations. From above example it is also quite evident that no matter how strong one is a follower of individual autonomy but at some point of life he will face this issue since being a part of a particular society one cannot totally ignore the norms, culture and traditions and acceptance of these cultures comes at a cost of giving your rights to be individual autonomous8.
