heteronomy

American  

[het-uh-ron-uh-mee] / ˌhɛt əˈrɒn ə mi /

noun

1. the condition of being under the domination of an outside authority, either human or divine.

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Etymology

Origin of heteronomy

First recorded in 1815–25; hetero- + -nomy

Example Sentences

One of its themes contrasts autonomy and heteronomy.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 25, 2026

From it he derives his all-important distinction between religious "heteronomy," which is imposed upon the individual, and religious "autonomy," in which the individual continually seeks and hopes to find.

From Time Magazine Archive

The characteristic of Morality thus described is its essential inwardness, and the sovereignty of the conscience over all heteronomy.

From Hegel's Philosophy of Mind by Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

In contrast with the Legislative, the Executive power expresses the heteronomy of the nation in contrast with its autonomy.

From Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Marx, Karl

The sensible nature of rational beings in general is their existence under laws empirically conditioned, which, from the point of view of reason, is heteronomy.

From The Critique of Practical Reason by Abbott, Thomas Kingsmill