Talk:Libertarian paternalism

2006 and 2008 comments

Talk:Soft paternalism

I want to distinguish between paternalism and "soft paternalism" so I think that theses

1. Calcium fortification of orange juice.
2. Folic acid addition to bread and cereal products.
3. Smoking bans in public places.
4. Fluoridation of water

are examples of paternalism - ie "But unlike “hard” paternalists, who ban some things and mandate others, the softer kind aim only to skew your decisions, without infringing greatly on your freedom of choice"

Since it would take way to long for people to discuss it then change it I will change it now--Mrebus 20:04, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

The SEP article on paternalism give a rather different notion of soft paternalism. Its example, which it attributes to Mill, is that if you can't communicate to someone that a bridge is damaged and would be dangerous to walk on (because you don't speak the person's language, say) then it is legitimate to forcibly prevent the person from using the bridge on the assumption that the person would make this choice himself if he knew of the danger. 22 December 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.2.125.11 (talk) 03:53, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Soft/libertarian

The term "soft paternalism" has two main uses in academic contexts. 1) Interference with choice that is insufficiently voluntary to be genuine/autonomous (and possibly also interference to establish degree of voluntariness). This use is for example that of Joel Feinberg in Harm to Self, 1986, by many considered the greatest contemporary defender of Millian antipaternalism. It is also the use of most modern political philosophers. 2) Interference that is relatively mild or non-coercive. This is the use of most economists and laywers.

Libertarian paternalism is a rather new term (Thaler and Sunstein 2003) that is somewhat vague but arguably refers to the shaping of choice by design of choice situations that does not exclude or impose non-negligable costs on any alternative. This is a form of mild paternalism, though depending on the details the overlap may not be complete.

I would suggest moving most of the content of this page to a new entry on "Libertarian paternalism" and explain the above mixed usage on this page, then focus on the philosophical use of Feinberg because this is a very important matter - that of voluntarienss - in the modern philosohical debate on paternalism.

If this idea is found a good one, I can help with rewriting.

Filofil (talk) 10:28, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

As there has been no objection to my proposal in almost five months time, I have now gone ahead with some major changes to reflect my concerns above. Because two editors (User:Tom Morris and User:Aaron Booth ) felt that there was no need for a new entry on Libertarian Paternalism, I have accepted the existing situation that there is this entry on Soft Paternalism which really only deals with Libertarian Paternalism. I have explained this curiosity in the first sentence. In my mind, this entry should ideally be renamed "Libertarian Paternalism". Soft paternalism is appropriately explained in the entry on Paternalism and if someone wishes to expand on that (s)he could do so there or create a new article that is actually on soft rather than on libertarian paternalism. Indeed, I could myself provide an entry on Soft Paternalism (in Feinberg's sense) at some point, if the current name problem is resolved. I will leave this to someone with more Wikipedia clout, as I am a simple paternalism scholar. Filofil (talk) 10:58, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

This article, which I have come to multiple times with the aim of reading up on 'Libertarian Paternalism', and which seems to speak only of 'Libertarian Paternalism' should really have said title. This is my first time behind the veil of Wikipedia (as this irked me so much) so I'm not going to change it (at least not without signing up) but if someone with even a mote of experience would find it appropriate then please do. -Regards, your friendly neighborhood Libertarian Paternalist — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.207.134.229 (talk) 15:22, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

See also - tax choice

I added tax choice to the see also section but it was removed without explanation. Are there any objections to adding it again? --Xerographica (talk) 00:23, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Re-add, and include a short note onto the WL that explains the connection to the main topic of the article. If someone removes, invoke WP:BRD.

Is there any relationship between "libertarian paternalism" and Libertarianism ?

The term "libertarian paternalism" seems clearly unrelated to the political philosophy of Libertarianism. The link seems inappropriate.