more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
It is important [for liberals] to realise that agents have no control over their possession of the capacities and opportunities on which their autonomy depends.
Gist of Idea
Agents have little control over the capacities needed for liberal autonomy
Source
John Kekes (Against Liberalism [1997], 03.2)
Book Ref
Kekes,John: 'Against Liberalism' [Cornell 1997], p.50
A Reaction
It can be replied to Kekes that they also have little control over the capacities upon which his prized 'desert' depends. It may be an axiom of all modern political thought that people have less control than we imagine.