In this paper, I seek to diagnose the silent corrosion of autonomy through Wittgenstein's forgotten metaphors. The Enlightenment promised self-guidance; the present delivers instead a grammar of captivity where consent is a ritualized semblance and algorithmic opacity a form of epistemic violence. Deploying Wittgenstein's unlocked door, unripe fruits, and spiritual hypothermia as instruments of critique, I argue that autonomy is not a possession but a discipline of permanent vigilance. Drawing o…
Read moreIn this paper, I seek to diagnose the silent corrosion of autonomy through Wittgenstein's forgotten metaphors. The Enlightenment promised self-guidance; the present delivers instead a grammar of captivity where consent is a ritualized semblance and algorithmic opacity a form of epistemic violence. Deploying Wittgenstein's unlocked door, unripe fruits, and spiritual hypothermia as instruments of critique, I argue that autonomy is not a possession but a discipline of permanent vigilance. Drawing on a neo-Kantian convergence between the later Wittgenstein and Habermas's communicative rationality, I propose a Praxis of Conversation and an Institutional Right of Recall as the twin foundations of genuine self-governance — with digital health as primary paradigm. My wager: that only by walking ceaselessly in the snow of critical vigilance might we yet thaw the frozen promise of self-determination.
