Heteronomy refers to action that is influenced by a force outside the individual, in other words the state or condition of being ruled, governed, or under the sway of another, as in a military occupation.
Immanuel Kant, drawing onJean-Jacques Rousseau,[1] considered such an action nonmoral.[2][3]
It is the counter/opposite ofautonomy.
PhilosopherCornelius Castoriadis contrasted heteronomy withautonomy by noting that while allsocieties create their owninstitutions (laws,traditions andbehaviors), autonomous societies are those in which their members are aware of this fact, and explicitly self-institute (αυτονομούνται). In contrast, the members of heteronomous societies (hetero- 'other') attribute theirimaginaries to some extra-social authority (e.g., God, the state, ancestors, historical necessity, etc.).[4]
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