Heteronomy is a technical term that is used fundamentally in the field of Philosophy, especially at the behest of ethics and that was introduced by the philosopher Immanuel Kant with the aim of naming the will that is not determined by the reason of the individual, but rather for issues unrelated to this, including: the wills of others, the different things with which we interact in the world, the will of God and sensitivity.
The word has a Greek origin, from the word heteronomous, which means dependent on another. Then, heteronomy supposes that the behavior of an individual is not controlled by his own conscience but by something external to it, thus renouncing any self-determined moral action; Kant devised this concept as opposed to autonomy.
According to Kant's Philosophy, the will can be determined by two principles: reason or inclination. So, when it comes to reason directing the way of acting of the will, it will be said that it is autonomous, but on the contrary, when it is the inclination, the sensitive appetites of man, which determines the behavior of the will, we will be in a position to speak of a heteronomous will.
For Kant, contrary to what anyone might think of a scenario in which there is indeed a freedom to act, in reality, for him, the fact that someone follows what the desires, the appetites command does not imply freedom, because Its realization would only be possible by accepting the demands and contingencies that the external world proposes, obviously something external to the will.
The situation is clearer with an example, if a person will consider himself fulfilled on a personal level once he has obtained a social recognition, his behavior, in order to obtain it, should not be constant, but rather should oscillate between the different demands that sometimes proposes the moved social order, because for example it will have to change political party, friends, ideology, desires, tastes, among other issues to achieve its end.
