Autonomy, Freedom and Rights: A Critique of Liberal Subjectivity (Law and Philosophy Library)

Emilio Santoro

ISBN 10: 9048163307 / ISBN 13: 9789048163304

Published by Springer, 2003

About this Item

304 pages. 9.00x6.00x0.69 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # x-9048163307

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Autonomy, Freedom and Rights: A Critique of Liberal Subjectivity (Law and Philosophy Library)
• Publisher: Springer
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9048163307
• ISBN 13: 9789048163304
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.49 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

Autonomy, viewed as a subject's 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 individual's identity. For Santoro freedom is not a fixed measure. It is not the container of powers and rights defining an individual's 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'.