Final answer:
An autonomous being is capable of making rational decisions independently and this concept is central to debates on free will and determinism in philosophy. Agency theory and soft determinism approach the subject from different angles, attempting to reconcile the feeling of freedom with causality and rationality.
Step-by-step explanation:
An autonomous being is one who is able to make rational decisions independently of external influences. This concept is closely tied with discussions on free will and determinism. Philosophers and scholars debate whether humans possess true autonomy or if all actions are predetermined by prior conditions or external forces. The theory of agency suggests that for an action to be free, it must be caused by the agent and not be the result of other sufficing antecedent conditions. This theory stands in contrast to determinism, which argues that every event, including human actions, are determined by previously existing causes.
The issue of free will also touches on the sensation of freedom. While a person may feel free in making decisions, this does not necessarily prove the existence of autonomy. Soft determinists hold that even if alternative possibilities do not exist, an action can still be considered free if not internally constrained. Indeterminism suggests that due to the limitations of human understanding of cause-and-effect chains, freedom can exist if even a single event lies outside these chains. The various theories aim to reconcile the feeling of freedom with the observable causality in nature and the rational processes in the brain.