Personal Autonomy in Society

'Marina Oshana's development of a social-relational account of autonomy makes a major contribution to contemporary philosophical work on personal autonomy. Her insightful attention to the value of autonomy for socially and politically situated creatures, such as we are, yields important critiques of psychological and procedural theories of autonomy. Scholars and students alike will learn much from Oshana's subtle and clearly reasoned book.' Professor Paul Benson, Department of Philosophy and Associate Dean, University of Dayton, Ohio, USA 'Oshana criticizes purely "internalistic" and non-relational accounts of personal autonomy. She offers her own, "social-relational" account, according to which it is a necessary feature of personal autonomy that one stands in certain relations to others in a social context. The critiques are penetrating, and Oshana's theory is original and important. This excellent book will be of interest both to political philosophers and also those interested in debates about freedom, moral responsibility, and causal determinism. Highly recommended.' John Martin Fischer, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy , University of California, Riverside, USA ’This work is an excellent example of traditional analytical philosophy...very well written, thoroughly documented, insightful, and rife with elucidating examples...this is certainly an excellent college-level textbook that many philosophers will find engaging and useful in the classroom...Highly recommended.’ Choice ’Oshana does an excellent job of developing a new and striking alternative account of autonomy, contrasting it with more traditional individualistic and less socially related accounts that she explains well... Anyone working on or studying autonomy and related issues will find the book of enormous value and will learn a great deal... Oshana succeeds admirably in accomplishing her worthy goal of contributing to the dialogue and engaging readers in all the rich and complex a