No one was saying it’d function in isolation. Just like a person being autonomous doesn’t mean they would do well in isolation (e.g. in deep space). Just because people do need to be in appropriate environments to function doesn’t make “people are approximately autonomous” meaningless or false.
You argue from ideas being approximately autonomous to the fact that words like ‘authoritarian’ apply to them, and that the approximately debate, but this is not true in the car analogy. Is it ‘authoritarian’ that the brakes, accelerator and steering wheel have total control of the car, while the tyres and engine get no say, or is it just efficient?
I didn’t give a loose argument by analogy. You’re attacking a simplified straw man. I explained stuff at some length and you haven’t engaged here with all of what I said. e.g. your comments on “authoritarian” here do not mention or discuss anything I said about that. You also don’t mention force.
You argue from ideas being approximately autonomous to the fact that words like ‘authoritarian’ apply to them, and that the approximately debate, but this is not true in the car analogy. Is it ‘authoritarian’ that the brakes, accelerator and steering wheel have total control of the car, while the tyres and engine get no say, or is it just efficient?
I didn’t give a loose argument by analogy. You’re attacking a simplified straw man. I explained stuff at some length and you haven’t engaged here with all of what I said. e.g. your comments on “authoritarian” here do not mention or discuss anything I said about that. You also don’t mention force.