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    Carmelics

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    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
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    Perspectives
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    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Mill's argument against paternalism is structurally weak in that it fails to object to successful paternalism

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    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Mill's anti-paternalism rests not only on epistemic grounds but on the intrinsic value of self-authorship as constitutive of human flourishing.
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    • 2.A restriction that produces the 'correct' outcome by bypassing the agent's own deliberation still fails to develop the individual's capacities for autonomous choice.
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    • 3.Therefore, successful paternalism remains objectionable on Mill's view because it undermines the very faculty—self-governance—whose exercise is itself part of wellbeing.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.The analogy to censorship fails because Mill treats self-regarding conduct as a domain where the individual's own judgment has final authority regardless of epistemic outcomes.
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    • 2.In On Liberty, Mill distinguishes between truth-claims subject to intersubjective correction and personal life-plans whose validity is internal to the agent's own ends.
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    • 3.Successful paternalism, unlike successful censorship, violates a domain-boundary principle, not merely an epistemic one, so the structural parallel does not hold.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Mill's argument against paternalism is analogous to his truth-tracking defense of freedom of expression
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    • 2.Mill's truth-tracking defense of freedom of expression provides no objection to successful censorship — censorship of all and only false beliefs
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    • 3.By parallel reasoning, Mill's argument against paternalism provides no objection to successful paternalism — restrictions on liberty that do benefit the person restricted
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