Akadēmiskā · Dienasgrāmata

"Since autonomy is morally valuable there is reason for everyone to make himself and everyone else autonomous. But it is the special character of autonomy that one cannot make another person autonomous. One can bring the horse to the water but one cannot make it drink. One is autonomous if one determines the course of one's life by oneself. This is not to say that others cannot help, but their help is by and large confined to securing the background conditions which enable a person to be autonomous. This is why moral philosophers who regard morality as essentially other-regarding tend to concentrate on autonomy as a capacity for autonomous life. Our duties towards our fellows are for the most part to secure for them autonomy in its capacity sense. Where some of these writers are wrong is in overlooking the reason for the value of autonomy as a capacity, which is in the use its possessor can make of it, i.e. in the autonomous life it enables him to have.

There is more one can do to help another person have an autonomous life than stand off and refrain from coercing or manipulating him. There are two further categories of autonomy-based duties towards another person. One is to help in creating the inner capacities required for the conduct of an autonomous life. Some of these concern cognitive capacities, such as the power to absorb, remember and use information, reasoning abilities, and the like. Others concern one's emotional and imaginative make-up. Still others concern health, and physical abilities and skills. Finally, there are character traits essential or helpful for a life of autonomy. They include stability, loyalty and the ability to form personal attachments and to maintain intimate relationships. The third type of autonomy-based duty towards another concerns the creation of an adequate range of options for him to choose from."

Raz, J., 2007. from The Morality of Freedom. In M.H.K.H.S. Ian Carter, ed. Freedom: A Philosophical Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. pp.413-416.