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This book is about the contradictions or tensions between our conception of ourselves as autonomous persons and our everyday experiences of a not particularly self-determined life. It is not a purely academic treatment but rather aims to be accessible also to readers who haven’t studied philosophy but are interested in the idea of autonomy and the life well lived. Hence on the whole, I have tried to write this book differently than I would have were it only for my philosophical colleagues; this was certainly easier to manage in some chapters than in others. I also frequently use an inclusive “we,” in the hope that I have in fact written this book for the people who may pick it up and find themselves in it.

I have been occupying myself with the problem of autonomy for many years now. During this time, I have had frequent opportunities to deliver lectures on the topics covered in this book. I profited greatly from the discussions that followed these talks, and I thank all those who participated for their critiques and suggestions. Particular gratitude is owed, however, to those friends and colleagues who read earlier versions of some of the chapters and those who patiently discussed numerous problems with me again and again: Joel Anderson, Katharina Bauer, Gijs van Donselaar, James Gledhill, Eva Groen-Reijman, Elisabeth Holzleithner, Naomi Kloosterboer, Thomas Nys, Andrew Roberts, Kati Röttger, Holmer Steinfath, and Henri Wijsbek. Their constructive comments were a great help to me.

I would also like to give special thanks to Robin Celikates and Stefan Gosepath, who were markedly consistent critical readers. They, along with Catriona Mackenzie and John Christman, belong to our autonomy workgroup, whose meetings and discussions were always highly instructive for me. My long conversations with Catriona Mackenzie about autonomy and the meaning of life – in Amsterdam and Sydney as well as in the Australian desert – also helped me immensely.

Thanks to my brothers, Martin Roessler and Johannes Roessler, for faithfully providing their respective expertise, and to Elke Rutzenhöfer for her advice as well as for her loyalty and friendship.

Large parts of this book were written in the Library of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, which is a wonderfully quiet place to work, especially in the summer, and I owe great thanks to Lidie Koeneman for her quick assistance in cases of bibliographical emergency. Lara von Dehn helped me with technical details at the very beginning, but the lion’s share of the editing of every chapter was carried out by Johannes Sudau – I am deeply grateful to him for his care and diligence. Finally, I would like to thank Eva Gilmer for her critical reading and numerous suggestions for improvements, and Philipp Hölzing for his patience as I was completing the book.

Amsterdam, December 2016