Libertarianism, paternalism, and autonomy con Mario De Caro

 

El día 7 de junio a las 18:00 (CET) 2021, tendremos un encuentro con Mario De Caro (Università Roma Tre and Tufts University) que nos ofrecerá su presentación "Libertarianism, paternalism, and autonomy" como parte de las conferencias que organiza APPLY

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June 7th, 2021 18:00 CET, Mario De Caro (Università Roma Tre and Tufts University) will talk about "Libertarianism, paternalism, and autonomy" as part of APPLY conference series.

"If there is an idea that is very popular in contemporary political philosophy, this is the conceptual and practical primacy attributed to individual freedom. The vast majority of political philosophers would agree with Mill that “the burden of proof is supposed to be with those who are against liberty; who contend for any restriction or prohibition…. The a priori assumption is in favour of [individual] freedom…” At the basis of this idea is that neither the government nor other individuals should tell any person what the best goals are for them and how to reach the goals that person chooses. As individuals, it is commonly assumed, we normally know what we want and how to behave in order to reach what we want – and this is why nobody should interfere with our freedom (as long as we do not interfere with somebody else’s freedom, of course).

Contemporary cognitive science and neuroscience, however, offer a picture of the human mind that seems at odds with the idea of the primacy of individual freedom, and may even be incompatible with it. In fact, it has been shown experimentally that in many cases (and according to some scientists and philosophers in all cases) we choose without knowing why we choose and confabulate a posteriori in order to explain rationally what instead should be explained by referring to unconscious motives.  In my talk, I’ll explore this conflict and propose a possible way out".