Reinterpreting the Right to an Open Future: From Autonomy to Authenticity
26 Pages Posted: 28 Nov 2016 Last revised: 29 Nov 2016
Date Written: November 28, 2016
Abstract
This paper reinterprets a child’s right to an open future as based on values other than autonomy. The paper identifies two goods that parents sometimes undermine when shaping their children’s values: authenticity and identification. It argues that these can be recognized as primary goods by both liberals and by fundamentalists. The paper then shows how we might re-conceptualize the right to an open future as protecting authenticity and identification rather than autonomy.
As a running example, the paper considers ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel who deny their sons secular education beyond an elementary school level. If their sons do not remain religious as adults, they cannot easily survive in secular world. The fundamentalist parents think they had no duty to facilitate their child’s secular future. They see no reason to protect their child’s autonomy (which they do not value) or to prepare their child for a life that conflicts with their values. This paper provides one response to their concerns. Following a political-liberal project of seeking overlapping consensus, it tries to base demands that children be prepared for varied futures on values that reasonable fundamentalists can embrace.
Keywords: Parents' Rights, Children's Rights, Right to an Open Future, Political Liberalism, Authenticity
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