Why Paternalism is Wrong (When it is Wrong)
Duration: 46 mins 11 secs
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About this item
| Description: | A talk given by Dr Jonathan Parry (LSE) at the Moral Sciences Club on 22 October 2024 |
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| Created: | 2024-10-23 10:55 |
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| Collection: | Moral Sciences Club |
| Publisher: | University of Cambridge |
| Copyright: | Faculty of Philosophy |
| Language: | eng (English) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a novel reinterpretation of the familiar, if inchoate, idea that paternalism offends against an ideal of personal sovereignty. The central idea is that (competent) persons have a particular kind of normative power. Just as each of us has the right to control whether others are permitted to use our bodies or property, we each have a structurally similar right to control whether others are permitted to use our good. When we reject beneficial intervention, others may not justify their actions by reference to those benefits. When others seek to benefit us against our will, they trespass into a domain that is ours to control, treating us as lacking rights that we in fact have. The paper argues that this theory is superior to existing accounts of the wrong of paternalism, is independently attractive, and rests on plausible foundations |
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