Autonomy

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Autonomy (Greek: Auto-Nomos - nomos meaning "law": one who gives oneself his own law) means freedom from external authority. It can be used various ways:

Autonomous entity, in politics, a sub-national entity
Autonomy (Eastern Christianity), the status of a hierarchical church; the status is one step short of autocephaly
In computing, an autonomous peripheral is one that can be used with the computer turned off
Autonomy Corporation, an enterprise software company
Within self-determination theory in psychology, autonomy refers to 'autonomy support versus control', "hypothesizing that autonomy-supportive social contexts tend to facilitate self-determined motivation, healthy development, and optimal functioning."
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political, and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts it refers to the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, uncoerced decision. In moral and political philosophy, autonomy is often used as the basis for determining moral responsibility for one's actions. One of best known philosophical theories of autonomy was developed by Kant. In medicine, respect for the autonomy of patients is considered obligatory for doctors and other health-care professionals.
Learner autonomy, in education, an individual awareness of one's potentials and strategies to take better advantage of one's learning context
In mathematical analysis, an autonomous ordinary differential equation is one that is time-independent.
In linguistics, an autonomous language is one which is independent of other languages, for example has a standard, grammar books, dictionaries, literature etc.
In organizational theory, responsible autonomy is one of the three components of triarchy, along with heterarchy and hierarchy.

Autonomy

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