Autonomy and the Ownership of Our Own Destiny: Tracking the External World and Human Behavior, and the Paradox of Autonomy

Abstract

Research on autonomy exhibits a constellation of variegated perspectives, from the problem of the crude deprivation of it to the study of the distinction between personal and moral autonomy, and from the problem of the role of a “self as narrator”, who classifies its own actions as autonomous or not, to the importance of the political side and, finally, to the need of defending and enhancing human autonomy. My precise concern in this article will be the examination of the role of the human cognitive processes that give rise to the most important ways of tracking the external world and human behavior in their relationship to some central aspects of human autonomy, also to the aim of clarifying the link between autonomy and the ownership of our own destinies. I will also focus on the preservation of human autonomy as an important component of human dignity, seeing it as strictly associated with knowledge and, even more significantly, with the constant production of new and pertinent knowledge of various kinds. I will also describe the important paradox of autonomy, which resorts to the fact that, on one side, cognitions (from science to morality, from common knowledge to philosophy, etc.) are necessary to be able to perform autonomous actions and decisions because we need believe in rules that justify and identify our choices, but, on the other side, these same rules can become (for example, as a result of contrasting with other internalized and approved moral rules or knowledge contents) oppressive norms that diminish autonomy and can thus, paradoxically, defeat agents’ autonomous capacity “to take ownership”.

Autonomy and Automation: The Case of Connected and Automated Vehicles

“…The importance of aligning the design, deployment, and use of CAVs to ethical expectations concerning personal autonomy could hardly be belittled. Even though its philosophical status is controversial (Magnani, 2020), personal autonomy enjoys widespread sociopolitical recognition as a key ethical value. In essence, it characterises human beings as self-determining entities who, therefore, deserve respect and protection (Christman, 2020).…”

Embodied Irrationality? Knowledge Avoidance, Willful Ignorance, and the Paradox of Autonomy

“…Here we propose to consider as an answer to this question the agent's anticipated regret of no longer being as autonomous as before knowing certain information. To defend this claim, we first need to specify what we can describe as "autonomy, " what we will name "epistemic autonomy, " and what one of us (Magnani, 2020) has named "the paradox of autonomy". So, autonomy is not an uncontroversial topic in philosophy, especially in ethical discussions.…”

“…Considering this last definition, the "paradox of autonomy" takes shape (Magnani, 2020). It claims that if, on the one hand, agents need reasoning to be autonomous-so they rely on their decisions, rules, preferences, and desires, on the other hand, the same decisions, rules, preferences, and desires can oppress our thinking and reduce our epistemic autonomy.…”

“…Beatrice, instead, is already in a condition that restricts her autonomy: receiving a diagnosis would allow her to take control and "ownership of her destiny" (Magnani, 2020). Choosing to not know, in her case, would amount to willful ignorance since she would not only need to avoid finding one information attainable by a medical test, but she would also need to avoid acknowledging any symptoms of her disease, recurring to wishful thinking, self-deception, and other irrational patterns of reasoning.…”

“…Since the basic tenets of embodied cognition argue that bodily states affect cognitive processes (Chemero, 2011), we will argue that we should consider the emotional impact of certain information (in particular certain epistemic feelings, Arango-Muñoz, 2014a,b) among the costs of acquiring knowledge, contributing to labeling certain situations of knowledge avoidance as forms of rational ignorance. Then, in subsection 3.1, we will discuss the impact of knowledge avoidance on agents' autonomy, which will also bring us to discuss the paradox of autonomy, already introduced in Magnani (2020). By considering these issues and comparing cases of willful 2 Despite our intention to focus on whether we should consider willful ignorance and knowledge avoidance as part of epistemically irrational reasoning, we acknowledge that further considerations may be put out regarding how these conditions can be also part of irrational behaviors (deeming them as pragmatically irrational).…”