A workshop to be held at the University of Essex (25-26 November 2011).
The aim of the workshop is to bring together academics and practitioners with expertise on theoretical and practical issues surrounding the issue of paternalism. Increasingly, frontline professionals in medicine and social welfare, etc., find themselves working in contexts where paternalistic practices come into tension with legal and moral commitments to recognise the autonomy of individuals. Both in theory and in practice, autonomy and paternalism are often understood to stand in a classic zero-sum relation: more paternalism means less autonomy, and vice versa. This raises the question of how best to strike the proper balance between the two. But in some sense paternalism and autonomy seem to be capable of standing together, as when parents act to foster the autonomy of their children. Our hope is to facilitate an exchange of ideas across disciplinary boundaries to explore these and related issues.
Here are a few of the questions that we intend to address during the event:
How should ‘paternalism’ be defined or conceptualised?
How should we analyse the relation between individual autonomy and paternalism?
When and on what basis is paternalistic intervention justified in practices such as medicine, law, education, and social services?
When and under what circumstances is an individual’s autonomy undermined or compromised by others’ acting in his or her best interests?
Do relational models of autonomy offer a way out of the conflict between autonomy and paternalism?
What is non-coercive (‘nudge’) paternalism and can it become a threat to autonomy?
Talks will be given by:
George Szmukler (Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London)
Richard Arneson (Philosophy, University of California)
Carolyn Hilder (District Judge, Court of Protection)
Rhys Jones (Political Geographies Research Group, University of Aberystwyth)
Wayne Martin (Philosophy, University of Essex)
In addition, there will be a panel discussion exploring paternalism and coercion in the context of social work and health care:
Sherrie Fisher (Residential support worker at New Directions)
Robert Cole (West Midlands Ambulance Service)
Anne Stewart (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and University of Oxford)
The workshop seeks to establish an interdisciplinary dialogue between academics and professionals with diverse backgrounds, including philosophers, psychiatrists, lawyers and social workers. Besides presentations and discussion of papers and the practitioner pane,l the workshop will include a case study session discussing some real-life examples of paternalism.
The workshop is free but places are limited. To register, please use the form on this page.
Paternalism and Coercion
The aim of the workshop is to bring together academics and practitioners with expertise on theoretical and practical issues surrounding the issue of paternalism. Increasingly, frontline professionals in medicine and social welfare, etc., find themselves working in contexts where paternalistic practices come into tension with legal and moral commitments to recognise the autonomy of individuals. Both in theory and in practice, autonomy and paternalism are often understood to stand in a classic zero-sum relation: more paternalism means less autonomy, and vice versa. This raises the question of how best to strike the proper balance between the two. But in some sense paternalism and autonomy seem to be capable of standing together, as when parents act to foster the autonomy of their children. Our hope is to facilitate an exchange of ideas across disciplinary boundaries to explore these and related issues.
Here are a few of the questions that we intend to address during the event:
Talks will be given by:
George Szmukler (Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London)
Richard Arneson (Philosophy, University of California)
Carolyn Hilder (District Judge, Court of Protection)
Rhys Jones (Political Geographies Research Group, University of Aberystwyth)
Wayne Martin (Philosophy, University of Essex)
In addition, there will be a panel discussion exploring paternalism and coercion in the context of social work and health care:
Sherrie Fisher (Residential support worker at New Directions)
Robert Cole (West Midlands Ambulance Service)
Anne Stewart (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and University of Oxford)
The workshop seeks to establish an interdisciplinary dialogue between academics and professionals with diverse backgrounds, including philosophers, psychiatrists, lawyers and social workers. Besides presentations and discussion of papers and the practitioner pane,l the workshop will include a case study session discussing some real-life examples of paternalism.
The workshop is free but places are limited. To register, please use the form on this page.