autonomy: an action which is determined by the subject's
own free choice (see will). In the second Critique, moral action
is defined as being autonomous. (Cf. heteronomy.
heteronomy: an action which is determined by some
outside influence (i.e., some force other than the freedom given by practical
reason, such as inclination) impelling the subject to act in
a certain way. Such action is nonmoral (i.e., neither moral nor immoral). (Cf. autonomy.)
HETERONOMY (from Gr. ἕτερος and νόμος, the rule of another), the
state of being under the rule of another person. In ethics the term is
specially used as the antithesis of "autonomy," which, especially in
Kantian terminology, treats of the true self as will, determining itself
by its own law, the moral law. "Heteronomy" is therefore applied by
Kant to all other ethical systems, inasmuch as they place the individual
in subjection to external laws of conduct.
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