Practical Autonomy

The greatest expression of autonomy is independent rationalistic awareness, secured either by discovering or revisiting knowable truths by looking to nothing but reason and, when applicable, introspection or mere outside perceptions.  All other forms of autonomy--from national self-rule to artistic expression to financial independence and beyond--are nothing by comparison to knowing the necessary truths of reason, which cannot have been any other way, without hoping to rely on other people in the way one relies on reason.  Others might prompt specific discoveries of specific logical truths, but one is ultimately looking to reason and could have discovered them beforehand or later on through reason alone.

There are more practical or less significant forms of autonomy all the same, still hinging knowingly or otherwise on the inherently true and always accessible nature of logic for their very possibility.  With or without doing anything more than passively gliding through it, someone who can repair their own home appliance, to give one example, is exercising autonomy of a kind despite how one cannot know purely from reason, unprompted by fallible sensory perceptions or hearsay, how to even perform such a repair.  Indeed, this could be done as an intentional expression of rationalistic autonomy, not that this is what many people would be thinking of as they strive to save money without paying outside professionals for a task.

Though it requires, given human limitations, either trial and error--to even then not know what will happen the next time one performs a task--or hearsay to point one in the supposedly right direction, doing everything from growing one's own food if possible to repairing one's own belongings can absolutely be motivated by recognition and awe of the fact that reason allows for autonomy.  Manifestations of this type are far more practical in nature than discovering or returning to abstract necessary truths, especially those strictly pertaining to reason, and yet they are still achievable.

Using what one has rather than buy a new, unneeded item from a business, without even hoping to store it as a reserve rather than just consume it to consume, would be one way to exercise this more practical autonomy.  Taking measures to not have to rely on a government, corporation, or stranger to meet basic survival or comfort needs as much as one's finances and health allow for is to pursue independence, though many people who seek to live with this sort of autonomy often forsake or never understand the far more significant ideological independence rationalism allows for, or how even more practical acts of independence can reflect the desire to know how reason is what allows for the fullest autonomy.

There are more ways to cling to independence than just discovering logical axioms or other strictly logical truths without external promoting or reasoning out what must follow from an idea that an experience had to bring to one's attention.  Lesser but numerous in the ways it can be applied, practical autonomy both is pragmatically useful and does not have to be grasped at the expense of rationalistic awareness.  One can avoid all assumptions, pursue autonomy of reflection on truths and possiblities, and still practice and enjoy independence in more practical ways, which are still only possible or knowable because of the abstract truths of reason.