Article
Comments on Richard Arneson's "Joel Feinberg and the Justification of Hard Paternalism"
Legal Theory
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2005
Disciplines
Abstract
In Arneson's view Feinberg's arguments against Hard Paternalism fail. This Comment first distinguishes different formulations of Feinberg's antipaternalism in order to uncover his grounds for denying there is any reason to use criminal sanctions to inhibit self-harming. The Comment then examines Arneson's proposed "secular sanctity-of-life" justification for criminalizing certain categories of self-harming. Although Arenson's proposal is in accord with our intuitions about hypothetical cases, the Comment shows it to involve a costly "ideal-regarding" concept of individual interests. The cost may be worth paying, but (Feinberg believed) its magnitude constitutes a powerful case against Paternalism.
DOI
10.1017/S1352325205050159
Citation Information
William A. Edmundson, Comments on Richard Arneson's “Joel Feinberg and the Justification of Hard Paternalism”, 11 Legal Theory 285 (2005).
External Links
SSRN