The conditional value of autonomy

Abstract This paper is concerned with the conditional value of autonomy. It is valuable for a person to have acted autonomously, but only conditionally on the act performed. It is good for a person autonomously to pursue a noble deed, for example, and bad for a person autonomously to kill without justification. This paper rejects two familiar views of the conditional value of autonomy – that it is always worse for a person to autonomously do what is wrong; and that it is always better for a person autonomously to comply with duty. In doing so, it clarifies the fact that value can play different roles in personal axiology and in deontology.