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ABSTRACT
Many entities might count as having beliefs and desires yet still not count as persons – some animals, for instance. While Frankfurt doesn’t go so far as to ask 74 what it is “like” to be us, his initial rejection of this “consciousness” or mentality criterion asks us to introspect and notice that we not only have beliefs and desires – attitudes – but that we also have attitudes about those attitudes. He’s right. We do understand and recognize ourselves as having certain attitudes, and as we bring these before us – or as they emerge in consciousness – we find new attitudes forming in response. Immanuel Kant on his work “autonomy and bioethics” it states that autonomy stood for the ideal of free will: a human will be driven to action, not by appetite or desire, but by identification with a ‘higher’ or rational self. John Stuart Mill on his work “Liberty”, it centred on one prime task of autonomy is to develop an individuality or identity that is authentic for each person. One is autonomous to the extent that he directs his actions in accordance with his own values, desires, and inclinations. Mill professes liberal autonomy. Ikechukwu Anthony Kanu on his work titled “Igwebuike as a Hermeneutic of Personal Autonomy in African Ontology” stated that autonomy is freedom from interference by others and limitations that prevent meaningful choices.
