- Title Pages
- Editors’ Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Value: a Menu of Questions
- 2 Finnis on Well-being
- 3 Reasoning about the Human Good, and the Role of the Public Philosopher
- 4 On the Most Fundamental Principle of Morality
- 5 What is Natural Law Like?
- 6 Intention and Side Effects
- 7 Intention and Side Effects
- 8 John Finnis on Thomas Aquinas on Human Action
- 9 On Moral Philosophy and Kinds of Human Actions<sup>*</sup>
- 10 Finnis on Justice
- 11 Retributivism in the Spirit of Finnis<sup>*</sup>
- 12 The Nature of Limited Government
- 13 Pure Perfectionism and the Limits of Paternalism
- 14 ‘Lawful Mercy’ in <i>Measure for Measure</i>
- 15 The Basis for Being a Subject of Rights
- 16 Constitutional and Other Persons
- 17 Bioethics after Finnis
- 18 A New Father for the Law and Ethics of Medicine
- 19 Value, Practice, and Idea
- 20 The Irony of Law
- 21 Ideas of Easy Virtue
- 22 Law and Its Theory
- 23 Finnis on Legal and Moral Obligation
- 24 Constitutional Principle in the Laws of the Commonwealth
- 25 Intention and the Allocation of Risk
- 26 The Right to Religious Liberty and the Coercion of Belief
- 27 Natural Law and the Transcendent Source of Human Fulfillment
- 28 Reflections and Responses
- Bibliography of the Published Works of John Finnis
- Index Introductory Note
Pure Perfectionism and the Limits of Paternalism
Pure Perfectionism and the Limits of Paternalism
- Chapter:
- (p.204) 13 Pure Perfectionism and the Limits of Paternalism
- Source:
- Reason, Morality, and Law
- Author(s):
Christopher Tollefsen
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This chapter argues, contrary to liberal forms of anti-perfectionism, that the state may, and sometimes must, take into account the moral worth of activities and forms of life, and the ways in which they may, or may not, conduce to a flourishing life. However, the ends for which the state acts are limited, and this limits the kinds of paternalism it is reasonably open to the state to pursue. In particular, penalization is permissible only when the wrongs in question are external and interpersonal. Thus, while the liberal Principle of Neutrality is false, the Harm Principle, properly understood, is correct.
Keywords: paternalism, perfectionism, autonomy, coercion, authority, neutrality, harm principle, natural law
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- Title Pages
- Editors’ Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Value: a Menu of Questions
- 2 Finnis on Well-being
- 3 Reasoning about the Human Good, and the Role of the Public Philosopher
- 4 On the Most Fundamental Principle of Morality
- 5 What is Natural Law Like?
- 6 Intention and Side Effects
- 7 Intention and Side Effects
- 8 John Finnis on Thomas Aquinas on Human Action
- 9 On Moral Philosophy and Kinds of Human Actions<sup>*</sup>
- 10 Finnis on Justice
- 11 Retributivism in the Spirit of Finnis<sup>*</sup>
- 12 The Nature of Limited Government
- 13 Pure Perfectionism and the Limits of Paternalism
- 14 ‘Lawful Mercy’ in <i>Measure for Measure</i>
- 15 The Basis for Being a Subject of Rights
- 16 Constitutional and Other Persons
- 17 Bioethics after Finnis
- 18 A New Father for the Law and Ethics of Medicine
- 19 Value, Practice, and Idea
- 20 The Irony of Law
- 21 Ideas of Easy Virtue
- 22 Law and Its Theory
- 23 Finnis on Legal and Moral Obligation
- 24 Constitutional Principle in the Laws of the Commonwealth
- 25 Intention and the Allocation of Risk
- 26 The Right to Religious Liberty and the Coercion of Belief
- 27 Natural Law and the Transcendent Source of Human Fulfillment
- 28 Reflections and Responses
- Bibliography of the Published Works of John Finnis
- Index Introductory Note
