children and developed agency

Authors

  • andrew divers Lancaster University

Keywords:

Autonomy, Agency, Rights, Responsibility

Abstract

That we treat children differently from adults is clear. The attitude of increased paternalistic standards can be seen in a number of cases – be it the rights which children have in terms of medical treatment, decisions about their lives which are left up to parents or guardians, or the prohibition of certain activities before a certain age. However, we can only treat ‘children as children’ if we can prove that this stands in great enough distinction from the adult. Either it can be shown that children are significantly unique (and certainly so in relation to adults) such that different treatment on this basis is justified, or, if it cannot be shown that children are different to adults or we cannot say who is and who is not a child, then the second conclusion must be that we cannot justify children as deserving of paternalistic treatment, and must either reject paternalistic intervention altogether, or else look for a new criteria upon which to base the application of these increased paternalistic standards. The second of these conclusions is that which I will defend in this paper, and will argue that we replace the notion of childhood with that of developed agency.

Author Biography

andrew divers, Lancaster University

Doctoral Researcher Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion County South Lancaster University Bailrigg Lancaster United Kingdom LA1 4YL

Downloads

Published

2014-02-10

How to Cite

divers, andrew. (2014). children and developed agency. Childhood & Philosophy, 9(18), 225–244. Retrieved from https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/childhood/article/view/20656

Issue

Section

articles

Most read articles by the same author(s)