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Nudging and Autonomy: Analyzing and Alleviating the Worries
Engelen,Bart Nys,Thomas
Engelen,Bart
Nys,Thomas
Abstract
One of the most pervasive criticisms of nudges has been the claim that they violate, undermine or decrease people’s (personal) autonomy. This claim, however, is seldom backed up by an explicit and detailed conception of autonomy. In this paper, we aim to do three things. First, we want to clear up some conceptual confusion by distinguishing the different conceptions used by Cass Sunstein and his critics in order to get clear on how they conceive of autonomy. Second, we want to add to the existing discussion by distinguishing between ‘autonomy’ as the ability to set your own ends and ‘autocracy’ as the ability to actually realize those ends (which is what most of the current discussion is actually focusing on). This will allow for a more careful ethical evaluation of specific nudge interventions. Third, we will introduce the idea of ‘perimeters of autonomy’ in an attempt to provide a realistic account of personal autonomy and we will argue that it can alleviate most of the worries about nudging being autonomy-undermining.
Description
Funding Information: This paper was previously presented on different occasions and we thank the respective audiences for their helpful comments and feedback. In particular, we thank the organizers of the OZSW Conference at Utrecht University (November 2017), the ?Nudging and Moral Responsibility? workshop at VU Amsterdam (April 2018), the ?Applied Ethics of Nudging? workshop at the University of Stirling (September 2018) and the workshop ?Nudging in Public Health ? And Beyond? at Aarhus University (November 2018). In addition, we thank three anonymous reviewers of this journal for their extensive and constructive comments. As always, responsibility for any remaining errors is ours. Publisher Copyright: © 2019, Springer Nature B.V.
Date
2020-02
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Research Projects
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Keywords
nudging, Sunstein, autonomy, autocracy, perimeters of autonomy
Citation
Engelen, B & Nys, T 2020, 'Nudging and Autonomy : Analyzing and Alleviating the Worries', Review of Philosophy and Psychology, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 137-156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-019-00450-z