Dialectical Relationships Among Human Autonomy, the Brain, and Culture

Abstract

This chapter will address debates about the cultural universality vs. cultural relativity of human autonomy by considering autonomy's relations with psychological well-being in different cultural contexts. The main thesis that will be defended is that human autonomy is an evolved natural property of Homo sapiens that has dialectical relations with people's socio-cultural environments and is a universal and necessary condition for people to be come fully functioning individuals. To defend this thesis, first, a relevant conceptual framework will be outlined. Then, based on brain research and evolutionary and system-theories, I will argue that human autonomy is a natural tendency that requires a brain of human-scale complexity to emerge. Within the same line of arguments I will show that the existence of human autonomy and self-determination does not violate the principle of determinism. After that I will address the dialectical relations between human autonomy and culture and highlight the factors and conditions that either facilitate or hinder the functioning of autonomous people within a society. This chapter will conclude with a review of empirical studies based on self-determination theory propositions that support many of the arguments stated in the first part of the chapter. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)