Autonomy was originally a classical Greek concept, applied in the ancient world to the power of a city state to enact its own laws and customs (as opposed to being ruled from outside). Such self-determination seems a pretty good thing. It can't have been very nice when the royal Danish messenger sailed into Reykjavik in the mid-16th century and announced to the devout Catholic population of Iceland that, like it or not, from now on they were going to be Protestants. Whatever our sympathies towards the Reformation, we are inclined to think that people should be allowed to decide such issues for themselves. Our awareness of global interdependence has perhaps altered this a bit in recent years. It's arguably a good thing for the French to decide their energy policy for themselves, but if they want to build nuclear power stations all along their remote and sparsely populated northern coast (which just happens to be the other side of the English channel), we may not be so keen on national autonomy.

But national autonomy is one thing, individual autonomy another. What exactly does it mean to say that an individual should enjoy personal autonomy? Going back to Kant for a moment, what he regards as important about the autonomous agent is the ability to make decisions independently of the arbitrary will of another, acting in the full light of reason, free from internal or external interference with one's rational processes. Hence to be autonomous I must be free from external tyranny, and also from the internal interference of unruly passions, raw appetites or fleeting inclinations.

That seems fairly sensible and uncontroversial. Essentially, it is the idea of a protected space of freedom. In the first place I want freedom from external interference: I need to be free of the threat of being bullied by others. And in the second place, I need to take my decisions, according to my lights, on the basis of rational evaluation, rather than being buffeted about by passions I cannot fully understand or control. Both these ideas, freedom from external threat and from internal disorder, are ancient themes in philosophy, and have long been regarded as essential ingredients of the good life. So far then, Kantian individual autonomy seems a straightforward and benign concept.