Autonomy, Social Oppression, and Adaptive Preference Formation

Kenneth Baynes, Philosophy and Political Science, Syracuse University

The notion of adaptive preference is familiar from Aesop’s fable of the fox and the grapes: The fox’s preferences are unconsciously modified in light of his restricted options. More recently, the idea of adaptive preferences has played a controversial role within feminism, development studies and disability studies. Doesn’t the ascription of an adaptive preference to a person necessarily deny her agency and autonomy? I argue that, despite challenges, the notion of adaptive preference, properly conceived, remains an important tool for constructive social and political criticism. I do this by proposing an account of adaptive preference in connection with a normative-competence and “relational” model of personal autonomy (for which the “competence for answerability” is central).