Good states want to increase the well-being of their citizens, and act to do this. Insofar as state efforts constrain action for the sake of well-being, however, there is a danger that these constraints will limit liberty in a way that actually undercuts the individual achievement of well-being. If we limit liberty in order to bring us to one desirable state (say, good health) that doesn’t necessarily increase well-being if the loss of liberty in itself diminishes well-being. However, when we consider the three major theories of well-being, hedonism, desire-satisfaction, and objective list theories, we see that there is nothing in the loss of liberty that necessarily diminishes well-being at all. It depends on what that loss brings about. Sometimes liberties make us better off, but it depends on the specific liberty and what it contributes. There is nothing about loss of liberty per se that does us any harm.

Private employers and their health insurers have come to occupy a central role in access to reproductive care for the majority of Americans through a complex legal infrastructure that effectuates employers’ choices in their employee benefit plans. While some aspects of state insurance law, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and anti-discrimination laws encourage employers to cover reproductive care, this web of laws is very porous and predominantly supports employers’ choices. Sometimes, this validation of employer choices expands access to reproductive care services, as in the case of Walmart extending its benefits to cover abortion-related travel expenses in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. But employers who wish to restrict access to reproductive care also find their preferences validated by law, as illustrated in Hobby Lobby’s successful bid to refuse coverage for certain contraceptive drugs, despite the ACA’s mandate to cover them. The additional deregulation that employers’ “self-insured” plans enjoy under ERISA preemption, combined with the prevalence of these plans, amplifies these effects. In essence, the availability of funding for reproductive care for the majority of Americans of reproductive age is left to the promises enshrined in employers’ health benefit plans and the incentives that these entities pursue in designing their plans. This chapter untangles the legal web that gives private sector employers this gatekeeper role, and explores the implications of our reliance on employers for individuals’ reproductive freedom.

“Militant Neoclassicism” argues that W. E. B. Du Bois marshaled post-Kantian aesthetics against the anthropological categories posited by Enlightenment theorists. The chapter departs from the traditional interpretation of Du Bois as a champion of integration, which relies heavily on The Souls of Black Folk at the expense of Du Bois’s later Marxism. This interpretation downplays his controversial advocacy for the self-segregation of African-American communities, which sought to capitalize on intra-group solidarity in order to rectify class conflict. The chapter argues that these collectives, spheres of free action carved out from predominately white social structures, evince the aesthetic autonomy theorized by Friedrich Schiller, whom Du Bois admired and quotes in Souls. Attending to aesthetic autonomy also reveals new connections between Du Bois and cultural anthropology, especially the work of Ruth Benedict, who advanced aesthetic arguments about anthropological communities that distinguished themselves from a dominant social milieu.

This chapter covers the common ethical and legal issues that arise in psychiatry. It begins with an overview of the four ethical principles guiding medical practice: autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. A brief discussion of parens patriae and police power follow, highlighting their particular applications in psychiatry. The chapter then goes on to illustrate how the balancing of these principles guides everyday ethical and legal issues. Confidentiality and its exceptions in the interests of safety and prevention of abuse/neglect are covered in detail. Next, informed consent and decision-making are explored. The requirements for informed consent are reviewed, leading into a discussion of those instances when an individual lacks capacity for informed consent (surrogate decision-making, involuntary admission and treatment, and exceptions). Finally, the chapter closes with an examination of the prohibitions against dual relationships, including sexual relationships, with patients.

This chapter argues the freedom requires the capacity for self-government or autonomy as one of its components.

This chapter argues that it is ethical to buy sweatshop products. It explains why arguments to the contrary made in the business ethics literature fail, why sweatshops are not wrongfully exploitative, and why it is better to benefit workers a little bit rather than not at all. It also considers how background injustices impact the ethics of sweatshop employment, and finally reviews issues of worker autonomy and goals other than the welfare of sweatshop workers.

This chapter discusses social-cognitive domain theory (SCDT) as a theoretical lens for studying parental monitoring and adolescents’ information management. Theoretical concepts are presented, social cognitive domains are defined, and research applying SCDT to parenting and adolescent information management is reviewed. Research on various beliefs (parental authority legitimacy, parents’ right to know about adolescents’ behaviors, adolescents’ obligations to disclose to and obey parents) and adolescents’ reasons for disclosing and concealing information are discussed and related to adolescents’ disclosure and nondisclosure. Distinctions are drawn between issues that are legitimately regulated by parents (i.e. moral, conventional, prudential issues) and those viewed as personal prerogatives and essential to autonomy and identity development. Developmental changes, cultural variations, and parent-adolescent discrepancies in beliefs are discussed, and explanations are considered for observed discrepancies between youth’s beliefs about obligations to disclose their risky behaviors and involvement in those behaviors. The chapter concludes with directions for future research.

Although debate has long raged about how to understand the emergence of modern industrial society, it has generally been agreed until recently that Europe’s (and especially Britain’s) pioneering role was enabled by certain distinctive features of its history, economy, or society. Today, however, certain scholars deny this, arguing that other societies had reached a level of development from which a transition similar to Britain’s could have emerged, and that the special trajectory Britain followed was enabled only by accidental or incidental factors or circumstances. The two proposed candidates are China and India, and this chapter takes up and seeks to refute the claims made in regard to each, in the process developing comparisons that show the utility of the categories of autonomy and teleocracy employed throughout this book for the history of industry. The impressive achievements of both countries are acknowledged and described, but growth and sophistication are shown to be insufficient without the structural features that made British society the special case it was.

In adolescence, an important challenge for parents is to keep track of their adolescents’ behaviors and to create conditions in which adolescents disclose relevant information about themselves. According to Self-Determination Theory (SDT), dynamics of autonomy play a central role in both the effectiveness of parental monitoring and adolescents’ willingness to disclose toward parents. This chapter provides a review of SDT-based studies on parental monitoring and adolescent disclosure. This research begins to show that, whereas autonomy-supportive communication increases the potential benefits associated with parental monitoring, controlling communication of monitoring is rather counterproductive. Further, adolescents disclose more often toward parents and do so more willingly when parents are perceived as autonomy supportive (rather than controlling). In conversations about unfamiliar topics, adolescents additionally benefit from parental support for competence (i.e. guidance). Studies also highlight adolescents’ agency in the dynamics of monitoring and disclosure. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.

Marx summed up Europe’s many impacts on world history as showing “what human activity can bring about” – namely, the capacity to undo and remake the human world. Although we have become increasingly aware of the negative side of this release of human energies, in war, ecological destruction, and imperial domination, the positive one survives in the closer contact between peoples, modern industry’s potential to reduce poverty, and the expansion of practical knowledge and scientific understanding. Remaking the World argues that what put Europe at the center of these changes was first the division and fragmentation that persisted through much of its history and then the emergence of spheres of activity that were autonomous in the sense of regulating themselves by principles derived from the activities carried on within them, as opposed to “teleocratic” domains governed by norms that were generated outside themselves. Unlike other attempts to grasp European distinctiveness which focus chiefly on economics and industry, it gives equal attention to culture, science, and the politics of liberty, and makes comparisons based on substantial discussions of counterparts to these developments elsewhere.

Although lying is frequently associated with problem behaviors, recent research also suggests that lying to parents is part of a normative developmental process that serves important functions for the growth and maintenance of adolescent autonomy and reflects complex and mature moral reasoning. This chapter examines adolescent lie-telling as an information management strategy and a form of everyday resistance that adolescents engage in as they strive for autonomy and increased independence in their relationships with parents. Connections between adolescent lie-telling and the development of their autonomy and moral evaluations are considered in detail. The chapter examines adolescent lying as a concealment strategy and situates lying among other information management techniques discussed in this volume. Literature on the developmental trajectory of lying is discussed, with an eye toward the changing alchemy of the adolescent–-parent relationship as children enter and move through adolescence.

Balancing individual autonomy and collective action is crucial in promoting dignity in participatory policy processes, particularly within urban policymaking. This chapter presents a case study of Lancaster City Council’s efforts to redesign the deteriorating “Mainway” housing estate, home to approximately 500 diverse inhabitants, within a dignified, inclusive framework. The project required devising a participatory process that effectively solicited input from all community members, including both regular meeting attendees and those sceptical of authority or unable to leave their flats due to health concerns. Amidst these complexities and COVID-19 restrictions, the My Mainway initiative was born. This ongoing initiative aims to transform the challenged estate through a £35 million urban regeneration project. Using a dignity-focused legal design framework, we examine how such an intricate process can facilitate dignified participation, ensuring a fair, respectful platform and offering advocacy for the seldom heard in community decisions.