Epistemic Paternalism Defended

Abstract

We have now reached the final stage of our investigation. A number of epistemically paternalistic practices have been identified, and Chapter 5 laid out two jointly sufficient conditions for justified epistemically paternalistic interference, together making up what we referred to as the justification condition. In order to defend epistemic paternalism — that is, the idea that someone may be justified in interfering with the inquiry of another for her own epistemic good without consulting her on the issue — what remains to be done is to show that at least one of the identified practices satisfies the justification condition. That is the purpose of this chapter.