The Collaborative International Dictionary
Heteronomy \Het`er*on"o*my\, n.
Subordination or subjection to the law of another; political subjection of a community or state; -- opposed to autonomy.
(Metaph.) A term applied by Kant to those laws which are imposed on us from without, or the violence done to us by our passions, wants, or desires.
--Krauth-Fleming.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1798, "subjection to the rule of another power," from hetero- + Greek nomos "law" (see numismatics). Related: Heteronomic; heteronomous.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The political subjection of a community to the rule of another power or to an external law. 2 The state of being beholden to external influences. 3 (context biology English) The condition of being heteronomous
Wikipedia
Heteronomy refers to action that is influenced by a force outside the individual, in other words the state or condition of being ruled, governed, or under the sway of another, as in a military occupation.
Immanuel Kant, drawing on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, considered such an action nonmoral.
It is the counter/opposite of autonomy.
Philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis contrasted heteronomy with autonomy by noting that while all societies create their own institutions (laws, traditions and behaviors), autonomous societies are those in which their members are aware of this fact, and explicitly self-institute (αυτο-νομούνται). In contrast, the members of heteronomous societies (hetero = others) attribute their imaginaries to some extra-social authority (e.g., God, the state, ancestors, historical necessity, etc.).
Usage examples of "heteronomy".
Kant, expanding sensual inclinations and desires is just expanding heteronomy, expanding slavery, expanding addictions.
The autonomy of the rational Ego had to be fought for, had to be actively secured against all those forces of heteronomy that constantly were at work to pull it down from its worldcentric stance of universal tolerance and benevolence.