Bioethical False Truths: Egoistic and Relativistic Autonomy vs. Christian and Ubuntu Relational Autonomy

Autonomy is either relational or it does not exist at all. Absolute individualism is a mental construct abstracted from an irreducibly relational biosphere. Human life finds itself in, and is realized by, relationships with other beings. This book gazes on the fact that individualism is irredeemably contingent on relationality. Significant as self-consciousness is, consciousness of the other as a fellow self is a higher consciousness. It is the consciousness of the other selves that is the basis of ethics and morality. Common Good cannot be ethically superseded by individual good. Individual good that is incongruous to Common Good is ethically absurd. However, popular understanding of autonomy has become increasingly unrealistic as it tends toward extreme egotistic and relativistic individualism. There is need for veracity in ethics.