Automatism inherently fuses autonomous self-motion with accidental chance

Evidence

If we consider its Greek etymology, the concept of automatism immediately reveals its speculative character. In fact what < α τµατισµς means is: ‘that which happens on its own’. And this can be understood in two ways: (i) what happens by itself out of necessity, its own internal necessity; (ii) what happens by itself, yet by accident or chance. Aristotle uses τ, α τµατν with this sense of chance, occurrence, when he opposes it to τ0νη. And the verb α τµατ %ειν expresses both meanings: it means to do something oneself – i.e. autonomously – and to act unreflectively, by chance, where contingency is a kind of heteronomy. If automatism has a conceptual significance it is the one deployed here, at the intersection of the essential and the accidental. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1097

Categorization

• DEFINE: Automatism’s Greek root signifies both doing-by-oneself and acting-by-chance, straddling autonomy and heteronomy.