Davies, B. orcid.org/0000-0003-4612-7894 (2017) Paternalism and evaluative shift. Moral Philosophy and Politics, 4 (2). pp. 325-346. ISSN 2194-5616
Abstract
Many people feel that respecting a person’s autonomy is not sufficiently important to obligate us to stay out of their affairs in all cases; but the ground for interference may often turn out to be a hunch that the agent cannot really be competent, or cannot really know what her decision implies; for if she were both of these things, surely she would not make such a foolish decision. This paper suggests a justification of paternalism that does not rely on such appeals. I argue that in cases where an agent will undergo a significant alteration in their evaluative outlook – ‘evaluative shift’ – three central, persuasive objections to paternalism lose their force, and offer a prima facie case for paternalism in some of these cases. I then suggest that we can extend this argument to some cases where evaluative alteration is not predictable, but where the risk and harm are both significant. In such cases, paternalism may be justified.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | paternalism; autonomy; liberalism |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of Philosophy (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 20 Dec 2023 16:40 |
Last Modified: | 20 Dec 2023 16:47 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Walter de Gruyter GmbH |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1515/mopp-2016-0013 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:206844 |