Paternalistic Lies

Reference to Thomas Hobbes:

People become subjected to others by conquest, by birth, and by voluntary offer:

Force

Inability to make one’s own decisions

Express and implied consent

Paternalism defined: “To guide and even coerce people in order to protect them nd serve their best interests, as a father might his children.”

“Protection” can suffocate and exploit

Degrading work, wars to “free” people

Paternalists can coerce in two ways (note that this is identical to Hobbes’s claims regarding “force” and “fraud”:

1. Violence

2. Deception

a. Bok’s focus is deception among family members and friends

i. Lies to children, confusing truth and truthfulness – lose respect for children

ii. Grotius – held that children have no right to the truth in the first place. They have no capacity for judgment, so they cannot be wronged by lies. Doesn’t this also mean that they cannot be assisted by truth, or that they cannot be treated properly by being told the truth?

1. Bok’s rebuttal

a. Children can be wronged by lies as much as others

b. Liars are injured by lying to children

c. Lies to a child can affect the entire family

The dangers of paternalistic deception from the point of view of the deceived person:

1. Problems may go unexplored

2. False hopes may be maintained

3. Unnecessary resentments may linger

Some less-than-benevolent reasons for paternalistic lies:

1. Fear of confrontation with the person to whom a lie is told.

2. Urge to maintain power

Justification for Paternalistic Lies:

1. Justified in a crisis

a. But the closer people are to each other, the less justifiable lies might be

i. Trivial lies mount up in families, between co-workers, friends

ii. The status of consent – “it is rare that children, friends, or spouses will have consented in advance to being deceived.”

2. Rightful paternalistic lies:

a. Would the person to be deceived, if he were completely able to judge, consent to be deceived?

3. Even Mill is guilty of paternalism:

a. Note his claim that governments are rightfully despoitic when they deal with barbarians just so long as the improvement of their condition is the end in view.