Throughout this research paper on the different theories of autonomy, I found that many of these theories resonated with my life experiences. It was also really similar to Korean culture. The dependence on autonomy really made me think, especially of Asian society and the concept of “눈치”. Therefore, relational autonomy and externalist theory really resonated with me.
1. “By conceiving of the individual agent as necessarily enmeshed in social relations, then, we can explore ways that social ties can be a positive or negative resource for the agent in all their endeavours – that is, how social factors contribute to an individual's autonomy.”
“If interdependent qualities like trust and loyalty ... are naturally conceived of as incompatible with autonomy, care-oriented decisions might fail to be appreciated as autonomous.”
These two passages from the reading really resonated with me, especially when deciding on my college in high school. The first passage shows how people around me influenced my decision. My friends, my teachers, and my parents were telling me different opinions about my school. My friends told me to go to UCI or wait for my waitlist, my teachers told me to go to Ohio, and my parents mainly told me to go to Haverford. The decision I ended up making was to go to Haverford College, and it was mostly made by my parents, which resonates with the second passage, showing how loyalty and trust influence autonomy. Even though several people, such as my friends and teachers, told me to go to another college, I ended up listening to my parents because I have built more trust with them. This experience really showed how relational autonomy works. And especially in Korea, we tend to listen to our parents more than in other countries. In my personal experience, in Western society, people sometimes build relationships stronger than with their parents, which leads them to make decisions based on their friends or even their teachers. However, in Korea, our parents are the number one decision-makers, which I felt a strong sense of kinship with in the writing.
2. “young girls and women are often be taught to be submissive to men and to focus on domestic life over other pursuits… It seems plausible to anticipate, for instance, a degree of condemnation towards mothers who choose to abandon their families in pursuit of interests which deviate from those that define a woman or mother's normative social role.”
This passage about the Doll House theory was really fascinating and made me think about a conversation I had with my mom. I once asked my mom what she wanted to be when she was young, or if she still has any dreams. She only replied that she forgot about all her dreams and that the only dream she has right now is for my sister and me to succeed in life. The fact that she forgot what her previous dream was really shows how society imposes a standard on women to become a set housewife and to have a “mother's normative social role”. The part where she said she wanted my sister and me to succeed in life also shows that her main goal is to be a mother. Again, connecting to my college example, I think this phenomenon is very common in Asia, including Korea.
3.“As such, they reject the kind of individualism associated with “… some liberal and especially libertarian conceptions of autonomy”…and recognize, instead, that individual identities are shaped by agents' social relationships and social determinants like gender, class, and race.”
“Externalist approaches, on the other hand, focus primarily on conditions external to the agent as the relevant criteria, like the phenomenon of social oppression or the agents who perpetuate the oppression and the way that these external factors encroach on the individual agent.”
These passages really made me think about the 눈치 (nneunchi) phenomenon in Korea, which means having sense or reading the room. As seen in the passage, the Externalist approach to autonomy shows how people make decisions not by themselves (internalized) but through their environment. This concept felt really similar to 눈치, which is when we have to act in a certain way in front of older people or people in higher positions than us, using formal Korean. This concept also ties to the idea that Asian countries, especially Korea, have a strong tendency to follow concepts of externalism or even relational autonomy, mainly because they are more collectivist societies with social norms that people have to follow. Whereas Western culture is freer from these phenomena because it is a more individualistic society, not comparing itself to others.