CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Mcinerney, Michael |
|---|---|
| Title | A Biopsy of Anti-Perfectionism: Controversies within the Philosophy of Health and their Implications for State Neutrality Towards Non-Autonomous Human Beings |
| Summary | In political philosophy, some argue that the state must be neutral towards controversial conceptions of the good life for human beings. These “anti-pe rfectionists&#x 201d; offer an intuitively appealing way to avoid the conflicts that inevitably arise when states justify their structures and laws upon some conception of the good life that is not universally shared. However, the “life” portion of the phrase “the good life” gets routinely overlooked in these discussions. Any conception of the good life must ask, among other things, “What constitutes a good life as a living creature for human beings qua human beings?” On the surface, there seems to be unanimous agreement on at least one aspect of the answer to this question. Health, a necessity for any life, can be considered an uncontroversial thing for states to provide for their citizens. Yet what exactly health consists of is not universally agreed upon. This thesis will ask if a state that endeavors to be anti-perfectionist can decide how to treat humans that cannot decide on any conception of the good for themselves— non-autonomous human beings— concerning their health. This thesis will argue that there are no legitimate justifications for an anti-perfectionist state to adequately preserve the health of non-autonomous human beings under its protection because many of these justifications must rely upon controversial philosophical concepts that said anti-perfectionist state must reject as illegitimate grounds for state action. Therefore, anti-perfectionism ought to be seriously re-evaluated and potentially rejected. |
| Supervisor | Gheaus, Anca |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/mcinerney_michael.pdf |
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