Principle of Self Determination

Determinism is the theory that everything in the universe is totally ruled by causal laws. Accordingly, every event has a prior condition, and all events are at least theoretically predictable if all the prior conditions are known. The principle of determinism is widely used by sciences of psychology, sociology, and anthropology in accounting for human behavior.

Self-determinism accepts the doctrine of determinism that nothing can happen without a cause. It follows that out free acts are caused acts. In the case of human decisions and conduct, humans themselves are the cause of the act. When individuals choose, their choices are not made by something else outside or inside the person, but are the acts of the very person. Indeed, the very meaning of person, say self- determinists, implies someone who makes his or her own choices. They say individual functions as free agents. They can produce anyone of several alternative effects on the basis of a choice. Thus, individuals cause their own acts. While it is true that we are strongly influenced by motives and must deliberate between them, in the final analysis we are not necessitated by them either way. In the end, we choose for ourselves. Hence, self-determination is the free choice of one’s own acts without external compulsion. It is the idea of a positive freedom, a freedom for actions that we originate, actions that are "up to us." Such acts constitute the essence of free will.

According to Rousseau, “humans are free in that they are self-determining, or capable of self-determination, rather than driven by their desires or instincts, and therefore, self-authoritative or ‘sovereign’, i.e. having ultimate authority over themselves.

Kant thinks of humans realising their innate capacity for self-determination in the course of history. He goes further in asking what self-determination would involve, saying that if I think and decide for myself then in the end this means that I must act rationally. The commands of rationality are called ‘imperatives’, and the most fundamental ones are ‘categorical imperatives’ which means if you desire one thing, then rationally you should do another thing to attain it.

So, the principle of self determination is an individual himself since he/she is the one to take his/her decision. ‘I’ is sole principle of self determination. Our essence as humans is to be (or become) self-determining beings. Self-determination entails rational deliberation about how to act; rational deliberation entails treating oneself as self-authoritative (as an ‘end’). Rationally this entails that we must treat other humans as self-authoritative too (this is the essential content of morality)

Self-determination also entails that we may pressurize each other so as to guarantee each a sphere of freedom, in the sense of external unconstraint, for their own choices, for such a sphere is necessary for self-determination. But in doing so we must all treat each other in the same way for we are all equally self-determining beings. So this coercion must conform to the principle of guaranteeing individual freedom under universal rules (the principle of right).

Self-determination entails that we must establish a common authority to implement the principle of right in positive laws, for without this we will be unable to coerce each other in a consistent way.

Kant believes that when we act on morally then we are actually acting on our own true will, and in carrying out those actions we realise our own freedom which is self determination. In choosing a moral life-style, we are really defining a large part of ourselves. Any moral code we follow must be our own, not in the sense that we alone follow it, but in the sense that we have arrived at it through our powers of reason and reflection on our experience. Granted, we cannot fully escape our social, cultural, and religious backgrounds; nor would we want to. Nevertheless, if our morality is to be an expression of self, we must carefully reflect on the values we have inherited, weighing their merits and liabilities in the light of our own lives, times, and circumstances. Such reflection places heavy emphasis on self-growth, especially on increasing our knowledge and awareness of self and the world and on being willing to adjust our moral views as relevant new discoveries arise. Self determination is concerned with the motivation behind the choices that people make. Therefore, self determination is about remaining true to the inbuilt purpose of ourselves, which, if we follow ‘What is Enlightenment?’, is to become self-determining. Hence one can be self determining being moral and making rightful decision.

Reference
Valesquer, Manuel and Barry, Vincent. A Text With Readings (3rd Ed.). Wordsworth Publishing Company. Belmont, California.

Websites
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/sefd0/crsold/tt1034/tt1034kant.htm
http://atheism.about.com/od/secularismseparation/a/SelfDetermin.htm
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/emerson.htm