Capacity that allows an individual, entity or organization to act independently.- The concept of autonomy has several meanings in our language. In its most general and widespread use, autonomy implies a condition, a state, that dominates a person, a community or a people, among others, and that makes them able to act independently and freely, being fully capable of make decisions that concern their interests and that allow them to improve their conditions.
Responsible for human actions and choices that are made freely
At the instigation of disciplines such as Philosophy and Psychology, autonomy refers to that capacity that human beings have to be able to make decisions without the help of the other, that is to say, although many times we use the vision of the other so as not to make mistakes when choosing or making a decision on some crucial issues, in reality, a large part of the actions, decisions and choices that we make in our daily lives are made ourselves and this is thanks to this ability that allows us to do so.
Given the importance of this capacity for people, we human beings attribute a very important value to it and that is why we defend it at all costs if we are lucky enough to have it. When a person is autonomous, he acts of his own free will and generally obtains good results because he pursues the objective of always improving his situation, meanwhile, it may happen that someone is restricted from this possibility, either because someone does it to him by force. or because the individual suffers from some physical problem that prevents them from functioning normally. The lack of autonomy due to a physical handicap or because another prevents them from exercising it is undoubtedly a very serious problem that people can suffer.
Synonym of self organization
On the other hand, the word autonomy is recurrently used as a synonym for self-organization. Used in this sense, it refers to that process in which the internal organization of a system, generally of an open type, will increase in complexity without the need to be guided by any external agent. Mostly this type of self-organized systems have emergent properties.
As a synonym for territorial sovereignty also
It is also designated with the term of autonomy to that power that certain territorial entities have to abide by their own rules, within the framework of coexistence with a General Staff. It is said that a jurisdiction enjoys autonomy when it governs itself and in which no external power has power over it. Autonomy in this sense constitutes a form of sovereignty.
In the Federal Republics, to cite a recurring example, the states or provinces that compose it normally have autonomy with respect to the central state, a fact that then allows them to act with total freedom in matters of policy management, of establishing their own norms. Regarding the administration of justice, the creation of government bodies that are in charge of administering the various levels of a state, among other aspects, they even have provincial constitutions that grant a legal formality to that autonomy.
Ability that allows man to determine what is good and what is bad
On the other hand, in the context of law the word autonomy enjoys a special participation, it is designated as the The individual's ability to dictate their own moral norms and constitutes a basic principle in private law, because it starts from the need for the legal system to enable individuals to establish legal norms according to their free will..
Use on the technical level
And finally in the field of technology, autonomy, is the how long a device with an independent power supply can remain active until the power supply is depleted. In this way a car can travel a certain number of kilometers without refueling depending on the capacity of its fuel tank.
As we could see in this exhibition, the word autonomy is widely used in our language and it also fluctuates in different contexts, presenting a diverse reference from one context to another.
