Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
1-1999
Abstract
“No, dear, you must not eat the soap; it’s not good for you.” Well-intentioned interference frustrates our desires even in the happiest childhood. Less happy is the perpetual state of adolescent rebellion against apparently arbitrary and unreasonable curtailments of one’s freedom, too frequently justified by the familiar refrain “It’s for your own good” adding insult to injury. Such interference does not necessarily cease with the eagerly awaited entry into adulthood. Not only parents are guilty of it; the state also engages in such interference. Can paternalism where one person deliberately interferes with another for the latter’s own good be morally justified?
Keywords
Paternalism, J. S. Mill, state interference
Discipline
Philosophy
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Journal of Speculative Philosophy
Volume
13
Issue
1
First Page
56
Last Page
70
ISSN
0891-625X
Publisher
Penn State University Press
Citation
TAN, Sor-hoon.(1999). Paternalism: A Deweyan perspective. Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 13(1), 56-70.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2614
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25670276