The development of children’s autonomy and reasonable paternalistic intervention

Abstract

Children are often perceived as beings who have very little or lack autonomy. The core of liberal education theory is to emphasize individual freedom and equality. In the context of liberal education, the purpose of education is to develop children’s autonomy, which is in conflict with paternalistic intervention in education. This article defends that children have a degree of autonomy through an analysis of the concept and conditions of autonomy from a philosophical point of view. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates the compatibility of children’s autonomy with adults’ paternalistic intervention from the aspects of children’s choice, respect for autonomy and future-oriented education. In the end, this paper proposes what is reasonable paternalism, that is, reasonable paternalism should be based on the moral equality of children and adults; reasonable paternalism should follow the principle of taking children as the center; reasonable paternalism is mainly achieved through the participation of children.