Children and Political Philosophy: Ethics, Justice and the Liberal State

MANCEPT Workshops in Political Theory, 8 – 10 September, 2014, Manchester

Background:
This workshop aims to further the political philosophical discussion about
children. Basic questions concern the moral and legal status of children in
liberal societies. The particular status of children and childhood in
theories of social ethics and concepts of justice is still widely neglected.
In most cases justice is based on and designed for rational, “fully
developed” adults, childhood is mainly viewed as a flawed preparatory stage
and children as agents-to-be and the guiding principles as well as the used
currencies of justice are not child-sensitive. There are increasing efforts
to deal with these questions but more is needed to answer what justice for
children can and should mean and how this could also influence the design of
institutions and policies. An important issue concerns the complex and
contentious relationship between children, their families and the state.
Other related questions regard children´s rights, the justification of
paternalism and perfectionism towards children and different conceptions of
children´s autonomy and citizenship.

Possible topics:

* Why is justice for children special and how does it differ from justice
for adults?

* How have different theories of justice dealt with children and what place
do children have in today's discussions about justice?
What are the goods, capabilities or resources that matter particular children?

* How can justice for children be realized and implemented in concrete
policies and what obstacles have to be overcome?

* How can the concepts of justice and injustice be used to understand
disadvantage, poverty and other forms of social harm that children face in
today's world?

* What is the role of the family, the state or the society in order to
protect justice for children?

* What are the specific legal and moral obligations parents and the state
owe children? To what extent are parents justified in passing on
comprehensive world views to their children? To what extent may and must the
state intervene in families and parental education in order to promote
children’s interests and opportunities? How should governmental, parental
and children´s rights and interests be balanced in cases of conflict?

* What is the relation between justice for children and child well-being and
well-becoming?

* Do children have rights? What kind of rights do children have and how are
they connected?

* Which specific traits and relations constitute children´s special
vulnerability?

* How can different forms of paternalism towards children be justified? What
is the role of perfectionist rationales in controversies about the
well-being and autonomy of children?

* How should we conceptualize autonomy as an educational concept and aim?

* How can education for autonomy be justified in pluralistic societies?

* How does the liberal tradition (e.g. Locke, Humboldt, Mill, Rawls) deal
with conflicts between parental liberties and state-controlled education?


Papers are welcome from graduate students and both early career as well as
senior researchers, that address any of these and related issues.

Submission:

Please send you proposal (350-500 words) until May 31, 2014 to
[email protected]

Full papers are due two weeks before the workshop to be circulated among all
participants. The publication of the papers in an edited collection is
envisaged.

You can find more information on the MANCEPT Workshops and about
registration, venue and the program on this webpage:
http://www.mancept.com/mancept-workshops/

Organizers:

Johannes Drerup, Gunter Graf, Christoph Schickhardt, Gottfried Schweiger