Autonomy: how lesser goods can be justifying reasons

It seems permissible to eat out instead of doing more good by donating to a charity that effectively prevents suffering. Many ethicists infer that partiality can be permissible, that it can be permissible to choose less good over more. A common thought is that our autonomy somehow explains such permissible partiality. Past attempts to vindicate this natural thought collapse the role of autonomy into the agent’s wellbeing or something that is itself morally assessable, such as attitudes, projects, or dispositions. This paper explains how autonomy gives rise to permissible partiality without such collapse.