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“Relational views take for granted the plausible presumption that the Self is related to others in various ways; who we are and how we identify ourselves is never a practice that is achieved alone.” (pg 4)
This passage resonates with me because growing up in India, I learned to understand myself through my relationships with my family and community. It helped me to be more mindful and thoughtful because I feel strongly that important decisions not only affect me but also those around me. Decisions in my life were often discussed in terms of family expectations, responsibilities, and how they might affect others. Growing up, I never felt that I lacked independence despite the way my decisions were greatly influenced. My identity and choices developed through the support, values, and perspectives of the people around me. I also feel that after I moved to the US for college, in a more individualistic context where independence is often emphasized, I became more aware of how heavily my identity has been shaped by important relationships in my life.
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“Relationality, according to Beate Rössler, can be both “an enabling condition and…an obstacle to autonomy.” (Rössler, 2002, p. 148) 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” (pg 4)
I chose this passage as it captures the complexity of growing up in a diverse community and culture. Close family relationships can enable autonomy by providing emotional support, guidance, and opportunities. At the same time, these relationships can in some ways limit autonomy when personal choices conflict with cultural expectations, especially regarding education, careers, relationships, or the behavior expected of young women. I also resonated with the way in which the passage doesn’t treat that as either a positive or negative because family involvement, expectations, and support is important but it can at times be difficult to gain autonomy.
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“If interdependent qualities like trust and loyalty (Mackenzie & Stoljar, 2000, p. 6) are naturally conceived of as incompatible with autonomy, care-oriented decisions might fail to be appreciated as autonomous.” (pg 3)
I resonated with this passage because both trust and loyalty were strongly valued in my upbringing and are now some of my own core values. I think it's important to consider that autonomy is not just separating yourself from others. Instead, we should consider more carefully what influences our decisions. For instance, trust and loyalty were strongly valued by those around me and are now part of what I value. However, it also made me wonder how we can distinguish it from being a genuine value/choice from an obligation or sociocultural expectation.