Future-Oriented Paternalism and the Intrinsic Goods of Childhood

Abstract

Paternalism is a salient feature of most children’s lives. This paper explores a specific version of paternalism, namely future-oriented paternalism. Future-oriented paternalism is directed to presumed valuable goals for the child’s later life as an adult such as autonomy and education. This paper analyses the normative implications of future-oriented paternalism. In a first step it is pointed out that future-oriented paternalism is often understood as entailing what can be called the ‘instrumental conception of childhood’. In a second step this conception of childhood is critically examined and rebutted. Hence the paper asks in a third step for a refined version of future-oriented paternalism that doesn’t make use of the instrumental conception of childhood.