HETERONOMY. - In ethics, heteronomy (ἔτερος = other; νόμος = law) autonomy (v.), and denotes the character of every moral system that seeks the foundation and norm of ethical law outside the human person.
Kant was opposed to every moral heteronomy, for whom the sole source of obligation is the a priori form of morality and duty (the categorical imperative), inherent in practical reason and absolutely independent of every extrinsic motive and determination. Christian morality, by placing the ultimate foundation of morality in a transcendent value, rejects absolute autonomism; but it does not thereby fall into a purely extrinsic heteronomy, since it posits the moral law as determined « conditioned by the moral demands
immanent in human nature, or at least, where the supernatural order is concerned, in agreement and harmony with its inner possibilities of perfection and elevation. A more radical and unacceptable heteronomy is that implicit in every system that denies the intrinsic distinction between moral good and evil, seeking its norm and foundation « in the free divine will (Pufendorf) or even in a contingent fact, such as, for example, the social pact (moral positivism, Hobbes); V. ETICA.