Autonomy
Autonomy has been a substantial theme of numerous readings in this course. Please reconstruct and critically assess some of the main arguments about the differing accounts of moral autonomy and how these apply to bioethics.
There are four mandatory parts to this paper which are the following
1. A substantive thesis that clearly specifies all of the argument, the main points of the argument, and indicates how these points connect together.
2. A substantive summary of the key points from one or two of the readings on the syllabus. (The reading is attached and the reading is separate from the sources. ). The sources are also attached.
3. Explicit and substantive reference to no less than two legitimate (i.e., peer- reviewed, academically published) secondary sources ( I have attached two sources)
4. A critical component. Please note, a critical component might involve an elaboration of how the paper’s themes relate to the student’s lived experience.
Sample Solution
In the western tradition, the view that individual autonomy is a basic moral and political value is very much a modern development. Putting moral weight on an individual`s ability to govern herself, independent of her place in a metaphysical order or her role in social structures and political institutions is very much the product of the modernist humanism of which much contemporary moral and political philosophy is an offshoot. As such, it bears the weight of the controversies that this legacy has attracted. The idea that moral principles and obligations, as well as the legitimacy of political authority, should be grounded in the self-governing individual, considered apart from various contingencies of place, culture, and social relations, invites skeptics from several quarters.