Autonomy (Ancient Greek Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning the Archaic , Classical (c. 5th–4th centuries BC), and Hellenistic (c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD) periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek. Its Hellenistic phase is known as Koine (&: αὐτονομία autonomia from αὐτόνομος auto nomos The nouns nómos and nomós both derive from the verb νέμω, némō, to dispense or to allot, with nomós being the result of allotment and nómos being the manner of allotment or dispensing from αὐτο- auto- "self" + νόμος nomos, "law" "one who gives oneself their own law Law is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. Laws can shape or reflect politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets. Property law defines rights and") is a concept A concept is a cognitive unit of meaning—an abstract idea or a mental symbol sometimes defined as a "unit of knowledge," built from other units which act as a concept's characteristics. A concept is typically associated with a corresponding representation in a language or symbology[citation needed] such as a single meaning of a term found in moral A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. As an example of the latter, at the end of Aesop's fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, in which the plodding and determined tortoise wins a, political Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in other group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of "social relations involving authority or power" and refers to, and bioethical Bioethics is the philosophical study of the ethical controversies brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy philosophy Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing fundamental questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. The word "philosophy" comes from the. Within these contexts, it refers to the capacity of a rational In philosophy, rationality is the exercise of reason, a key method used to analyze the data gained through systematically gathered observations individual As commonly used, an individual is a person or any specific object in a collection. In the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics, individual means "indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person." . From the seventeenth to make an informed, un-coerced decision. In moral and political philosophy Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing fundamental questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. The word "philosophy" comes from the, autonomy is often used as the basis for determining moral responsibility for one's actions. One of the best known philosophical theories of autonomy was developed by Kant Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was an 18th-century German philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg. Kant was the last influential philosopher of modern Europe in the classic sequence of the theory of knowledge during the Enlightenment beginning with thinkers John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume. In medicine Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness. Before scientific medicine, healing arts were practised in accordance with alchemical treatments and ritual practices that developed out of religious and cultural traditions, respect for the autonomy of patients is an important goal, though it can conflict with a competing ethical principle, namely beneficence Nonmaleficence, which derives from the maxim, is one of the principal precepts of medical ethics that all medical students are taught in medical school and is a fundamental principle for emergency medical services around the world. Another way to state it is that "given an existing problem, it may be better to do nothing than to do something. Politically, it is also used to refer to the self-government of the people Because the word people often refers to abstract and general types of groups, the word persons is sometimes used in place of people, especially when it would be ambiguous with its collective sense . It can collectively refer to all humans or it can be used to identify a certain ethnic or religious group. For example, "people of color" is.

Sociology

In the subfield of Sociology Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social activity, often with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare. Subject matter called Sociology of knowledge The Sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises, and of the effects prevailing ideas have on societies. It is not a specialized area of sociology but instead deals with broad fundamental questions about the extent and limits of social influences on individual's lives, controversy Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of opinion. The word was coined from the Latin controversia, as a composite of controversus - "turned in an opposite direction," from contra - "against" - and vertere - to turn, or versus , hence, "to turn against." over the boundaries of autonomy stopped at the concept of relative autonomy (BOURDIEU, 2001), until a typology of autonomy was created and developed within science and technology studies Science and technology studies is the study of how social, political, and cultural values affect scientific research and technological innovation, and how these in turn affect society, politics, and culture. STS scholars are interested in a variety of problems including the relationships between scientific and technological innovations and society, (MARANHÃO, 2005; 2006; 2007; SOBRAL & MARANHÃO, 2008). According to it, the contemporary form of Science's existing autonomy is the reflexive autonomy: actors and structures within the scientific Science is a systematic enterprise of gathering knowledge about nature and organizing and condensing that knowledge into testable laws and theories. As knowledge has increased, some methods have proved more reliable than others, and today the scientific method is the standard for science. It includes the use of careful observation, experimentation, field are able to translate or to reflect diverse themes presented by social and political fields, as well as influence them regarding the thematic choices on research projects

Politics

In the past few decades, a large movement of autonomism Autonomism refers to a set of left-wing political and social movements and theories close to the socialist movement. As an identifiable theoretical system it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerist communism. Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tendencies became significant after influence from the Situationists, the failure of Italian has emerged in the form of anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy. It seeks to diminish or even abolish authority in the conduct of human relations. Anarchists may widely disagree on what additional criteria are required in anarchism. The Oxford Companion to.

In the United States government, autonomy refers to one's own self-governance. One former example of an Autonomous jurisdiction into the United States government belong to the Philippine Islands The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. Taiwan lies north across the Luzon Strait. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest separates it from the island of Borneo and to the south the; The Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916 provide the framework for the creation of an autonomous government providing the Filipino people Filipino, English, Philippine languages, Spanish, Arabic and other languages (Filipinos) broader domestic autonomy, though it reserved certain privileges to the United States to protect their sovereign Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided. The concept has been discussed, debated and questioned throughout history, from the time of the Romans through to the present day, rights and interests.^[1].

Philosophy

The word autonomy has several meanings in a philosophical context. In ethics Ethics is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good vs. bad, noble vs. ignoble, right vs. wrong, and matters of justice, love, peace, and virtue, autonomy refers to a person's capacity for self-determination in the context of moral choices. Kant Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was an 18th-century German philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg. Kant was the last influential philosopher of modern Europe in the classic sequence of the theory of knowledge during the Enlightenment beginning with thinkers John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume argued that autonomy is demonstrated by a person who decides on a course of action out of respect for moral duty Duty is a term that conveys a sense of moral commitment to someone or something. The moral commitment is the sort that results in action[citation needed] and it is not a matter of passive feeling or mere recognition. When someone recognizes a duty, that person commits himself/herself to the cause involved without considering the self-interested. That is, an autonomous person acts morally solely for the sake of doing "good", independently of other incentives. In his Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals The Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals or Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals , Immanuel Kant's first contribution to moral philosophy, argues for an a priori basis for morality. Where the Critique of Pure Reason laid out Kant's metaphysical and epistemological ideas, this relatively short, primarily meta-ethical, work was intended to, Kant applied this concept to create a definition of personhood. He suggested that such compliance with moral law creates the essence of human dignity Dignity is a term used in moral, ethical, and political discussions to signify that a being has an innate right to respect and ethical treatment. It is an extension of Enlightenment-era beliefs that individuals have inherent, inviolable rights, and thus is closely related to concepts like virtue, respect, self-respect, autonomy, human rights, and. In metaphysical philosophy, the concept of autonomy is referenced in discussions about free will, fatalism, determinism, and agency.

Religion

In the polity Ecclesiastical polity is the operational and governance structure of a church or Christian denomination. It also denotes the ministerial structure of the church and the authority relationships between churches. Polity is closely related to Ecclesiology, the study of doctrine and theology relating to church organization of the Orthodox Church The Orthodox Church, also officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church[note 1] and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, asserts that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles almost 2,000 years ago. The Church is composed of several self-governing ecclesial bodies, each, the term "autonomous" describes a type of church body. A church that is autonomous has its highest-ranking bishop, such as an archbishop An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest (presbyter) and bishop. Accordingly, one does not become an archbishop by ordination or metropolitan In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital, appointed by the patriarch Originally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a composition of πατήρ meaning "father" and ἄρχων (archon) meaning "leader", "chief", "ruler& of the mother church It is used as a title of distinction for churches established originally as the first mission of a particular region. For example, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawai'i was the site of the first French Catholic mission of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, from which the modern Hawai'i Catholic Church was from which it was granted its autonomy, but is self-governing in all other respects.

Medicine

In a medical context, respect for a patient's autonomy is considered a fundamental ethical principle. This belief is the central premise of the concept of informed consent Informed consent is a phrase often used in the law to indicate that the consent a person gives meets certain minimum standards. As a literal matter, in the absence of fraud, it is redundant. An informed consent can be said to have been given based upon a clear appreciation and understanding of the facts, implications, and future consequences of an and shared decision making. This idea, while considered essential to today's practice of medicine, was developed in the last 50 years. According to Beauchamp and Childress (in Principles of Biomedical Ethics), the Nuremberg trials detailed accounts of horrifyingly exploitative medical "experiments." These incidences prompted calls for safeguards in medical research. In the 1940s, the phrase "informed consent" appeared but didn't become widely used until the 1970s. Initially, discussions about informed consent focused almost exclusively on research subjects, but eventually has come to apply to the conventional physician-patient relationship as well. The seven elements of informed consent (as defined by Beauchamp) include threshold elements (Competence and Voluntariness), information elements (Disclosure, Recommendation, and Understanding) and consent elements (Decision and Authorization).

Restrictions on autonomy

Autonomy can be, and usually is to one extent or another, waived to another authority, such as by agreeing to follow governing laws. The actions available to an autonomous unit can be restricted by a more powerful authority, such as when a cattleman sets a fence around his herd, or a court sentences a criminal to prison. The decisions of an autonomous unit can be coerced, and its actions forced. Autonomy can be restricted through the aspect of the ability to act, as in the case of a newborn or through the aspect of the ability to decide as in the case of a person in a coma.

Space systems

Autonomy is an increasing feature of space systems with two objectives

• Mandatory for new functions:

e.g. several spacecraft in formation flight adjust their relative positions so that interferometric measurements with wide basis can be performed

• Cost reduction:

e.g. failure detection and recovery by spacecraft system without ground station involvement reduces Up-/Downlink usage and reduces operational costs on ground.

• See Robotics:

An Autonomous Space Craft might make certain decisions for itself based on imagery observation and a pre-programmed algorythm that will determine the only possible logical outcome and then perform that task without having to ask controllers NAND NOR AND types of parameters. Autonomy in Space does not relate to the socio-political definitions, here we are talking about a device that can make basic or convoluted decisions based on LOGIC (in an electronic usage), the X37b Military Space Plane is a great example!

To have true Autonomy however a device (or entity) would need to have a longer leash being able to complete complex missions without human intra direction. Such a system would say further automate the other elements of the total process making the whole of the "system" larger by including more devices that multicommunicate with each other without involving ground based technicians or communications. (the military might not want to send possibly interceptable signals to and from said same)

For example: If they automated the ground based tracking and control sending and or included additional satelites and/or space planes OR other devices (autonomous air and seacraft) the X37b Missions could someday become totally Autonomous.

• Basically: Send it on a mission and recover it when it lands.

• Obviously Autonomy here too has its authority hierarchy whereby command override

is in effect. If the ground controllers want to they can take control of the space craft at any time. A typical mission though will be preprogrammed and perform as directed and land.. OR perform a task WHILE and/or UNTIL (in a software sense) a condition is met (say a signal sent from the ground) IF/THEN Land the Un-Manned SpaceCraft without further direction from the ground. The systems so happen to interact but that is not a necessary condition for autonomy. As each device becomes more and more autonomous the total network becomes more and more intelligent and at the same time secure

• Please see Cybernetics Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to control theory and systems theory. Both in its origins and in its evolution in the second-half of the 20th century, cybernetics is equally applicable to physical and social systems for more info.

• See also: Unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV; also known as a remotely piloted vehicle or RPV, or Unmanned Aircraft System ) is an aircraft that flies without a human crew on board the aircraft. Their largest uses are in military applications. To distinguish UAVs from missiles, a UAV is defined[by whom?] as a reusable, uncrewed vehicle capable of controlled, or UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV; also known as a remotely piloted vehicle or RPV, or Unmanned Aircraft System ) is an aircraft that flies without a human crew on board the aircraft. Their largest uses are in military applications. To distinguish UAVs from missiles, a UAV is defined[by whom?] as a reusable, uncrewed vehicle capable of controlled,

Various uses

• In computing, an autonomous peripheral A peripheral is a device attached to a host computer but not part of it, and is more or less dependent on the host. It expands the host's capabilities, but does not form part of the core computer architecture is one that can be used with the computer turned off
• Within self-determination theory Self-determination theory is a general theory of human motivation and is concerned with the choices people make with their own free will and full sense of choice, without any external influence and interference. For example, a self-determined person chooses to behave in a manner that reflects his/her autonomy and his/her behavior is not to achieve in psychology, autonomy refers to 'autonomy support versus control', "hypothesizing that autonomy-supportive social contexts tend to facilitate self-determined motivation, healthy development, and optimal functioning."
• In mathematical analysis, an ordinary differential equation In mathematics, an ordinary differential equation is a relation that contains functions of only one independent variable, and one or more of its derivatives with respect to that variable is said to be autonomous if it is time-independent.
• In linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning (semantics and pragmatics). Grammar encompasses morphology (the formation and composition of words), syntax (the rules that determine how words, an autonomous language is one which is independent of other languages, for example has a standard, grammar books, dictionaries or literature etc.
• In robotics Robotics is the engineering science and technology of robots, and their design, manufacture, application, and structural disposition. Robotics is related to electronics, mechanics, and software. The word robot was introduced to the public by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. , published in 1920. The term "robotics" was coined "autonomy means independence of control. This characterization implies that autonomy is a property of the relation between two agents, in the case of robotics, of the relations between the designer and the autonomous robot Autonomous robots are robots which can perform desired tasks in unstructured environments without continuous human guidance. Many kinds of robots have some degree of autonomy. Different robots can be autonomous in different ways. A high degree of autonomy is particularly desirable in fields such as space exploration, cleaning floors, mowing lawns,. Self-sufficiency, situatedness, learning or development, and evolution increase an agent’s degree of autonomy.", according to Rolf Pfeifer.
• In economics Economics is the social science that is concerned with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek οἰκονομία from οἶκος (oikos, "house") + νόμος (nomos, "custom" or "law"), hence "rules of the house(hold)". Current, autonomous consumption Autonomous consumption is a term used to describe consumption expenditure that occurs when income levels are zero. Such consumption is considered autonomous of income only when expenditure on these consumables does not vary with changes in income. If income levels are actually zero, this consumption counts as dissaving, because it is financed by is consumption expenditure when income levels are zero, making spending autonomous to income.
• In politics Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in other group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of "social relations involving authority or power" and refers to, autonomous territories are States wishing to retain territorial integrity in opposition to ethnic or indigenous demands for self-determination or independence (sovereignty).

Sue

See also

• Autonomism
• Cornelius Castoriadis
• Takis Fotopoulos
• Teaching for social justice
• Viable System Model
• Territorial autonomy
• Self-governing colony
• Sui iuris

References

1. ^ Philippine Autonomy Act (Jones Law)

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