2018-19 Ethics & Economics Challenge Underway!

Second Treatise cover

Last month, Ethics & Economics Challenge started again at The Founders Academy in Manchester, N.H. and Merrimack Valley H.S. in Penacook, N.H. We are trying out an entirely new format this year. Students will focus on reading three works of major historical or contemporary importance in the fields of economics and moral philosophy, and we discuss a chapter or two […]

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A Right to Rule?

White House

How can one group of human beings come to enjoy a right to enforce its authoritative commands on other human beings? In other words, how does government come to enjoy a right to rule, and how do citizens come to incur a duty to obey? An example may help motivate the question. Suppose some of your neighbors start a “neighborhood […]

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Paternalism: why or why not?

On Liberty

Paternalism can be defined simply as the use of coercion (force) against someone for that person’s own good. For instance, slapping a cigarette out of someone’s hand while yelling, “Smoking is bad for you!” would be an exercise of vigilante paternalism. John Stuart Mill argued in On Liberty that paternalism of this kind is wrong. A person’s own good is […]

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