I rank 'autonomy' as one of the four essential principles for successful networks (the others are diversity, openness, and interaction). But what is this 'autonomy' of which I speak? And is it compatible with communitarian values, or the imperatives that result from membership in certain social or cultural groups? I would not claim that this book offers the answers, but as this review of John Christman's The Politics of Persons: Individual Autonomy and Socio-historical Selves shows, it provides good insight into the sorts of questions that can be asked. Of particular relevance, I would say, are limitations on autonomy improved by one's nature - whether one is bound by gravity, whether one is limited by certain possible neural states, whether one is constrained by gender - and whether these natural constraints also have a social and cultural dimension, and to what degree that dimension is authoritative.
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