Heteronomy

HETERONOMY. - In ethics, heteronomy (ἔτερος = other; νόμος = law) is opposed to autonomy (v.), and denotes the character of every moral system that seeks the foundation and the norm of the 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 of duty (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 for that reason fall back into a purely extrinsic heteronomy, inasmuch as it posits the moral law as determined and conditioned by the moral exigencies immanent in human nature, or at least, in the case of the supernatural order, in accord and harmony with its interior possibilities of perfection and elevation. A more radical and unacceptable heteronomy is the one 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 contract (moral positivism, Hobbes); v. ETICA.

Ugo Viglino