Ghost-written lives: autonomy, deference, and self-authorship

Garnett, Michael (2023) Ghost-written lives: autonomy, deference, and self-authorship. Ethics 133 (2), pp. 189-215. ISSN 0014-1704.

Abstract

Certain forms of practical deference seem to be incompatible with personal autonomy. I argue that such deference undermines autonomy not by compromising the governance of an authentic self, nor by constituting a failure to track objective reasons, but by constituting a particular social relation: one of interpersonal rule. I analyse this social relation and distinguish it from others, including ordinary relations of love and care. Finally, I argue that the particular form of interpersonal rule constituted by dispositions of practical deference in itself entails a partial, though not total, disconnection from the good of a self-authored life.

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