Autonomy

Autonomy, viewed as a subjects autonomous designing of her own distinctive individuality, is not a constitutive problem for liberal theory. Since its earliest formulations, liberalism has taken it for granted that protecting rights is a sufficient guarantee for the primacy of individual subjectivity. The most dangerous legacy of the hierarchical-dualist representation of the subject is the primacy given to reason in defining an individuals identity. For Santoro freedom is not a fixed measure. It is not the container of powers and rights defining an individuals role and identity. It is rather the outcome of a process whereby individuals continuously re-define the shape of their individuality. Freedom is everything that each of us manages to be in his or her active and uncertain opposition to external pressures.