Autonomy is one of the most challenged and challenging notions of our times. Teoretical investigations and practical applications of autonomy show it as a concept that refracts the extremes of freedom and necessi- ty, identity and alterity, situatedness and displacement, liberty and op- pression. Autonomy as a prism is always open to the risk of becoming a crystal prison. Autonomy seems, then, to be a fragile beam of light woven in a spectrum of open oppositions that constantly characterize the course of human beings’ individual and social existence. Although the rise of modernity was also the rise of autonomy, and possibilities for self-realization and self-expression are unparalleled in human history, autonomy is signifcantly challenged in the present-day McLuhanian “global village.” Tis book addresses the topic of autonomy through diferent perspec- tives inspired by Paul Ricœur’s work and applied to a variety of individ- ual and social conditions through the lens of phenomenological anthro- pology, capabilities approach, and more. What is the nature of autonomy? What does it mean that a person, a group, or a notion is autonomous? What is the bond between the pri- vate and the public sphere of autonomy? Is autonomy an anthropocen- tric ideal? Are we facing a decline of autonomy in the post-modern and digital age, or is human autonomy inalienable and more actualized than ever before? By providing multiple answers to these open-ended questions, and by raising yet more questions, autonomy will be put on a higher plane of interdisciplinary discussion. The Challenges of Autonomy The Challenges of Autonomy and Autonomy as a Challenge Thinking Autonomy in Challenging Times Edited by Paolo Furia, Dagmar Kusá, Maria Cristina Clorinda Vendra Edited by Paolo Furia, Dagmar Kusá, Maria Cristina Clorinda Vendra Kritika & Kontext Kritika & Kontext