Lexington Books Paradoxes of Liberalism and Parental Authority

Product Description This book is a detailed examination of parental authority: what justifies and what are the proper limits of a parent's authority over her children? Dennis Arjo focuses on and criticizes attempts to answer these and related questions in the context of liberal philosophy of education. He also offers an alternative framework for thinking about parental authority that draws on recent philosophical work in Virtue Ethics, Care Ethics, and Confucianism that challenges some of the assumptions of contemporary liberal theory. This book will be of interest to philosophers working in ethics, political philosophy and philosophy of education. Review Professor Arjo's monograph is at once a welcome, highly readable introduction to the philosophical problems that arise in liberal parenting, as well as a lucid, thorough, and closely argued defense of limited enrollment of children into religious or other comprehensive doctrines. The inclusion of work in Confucian philosophy is especially welcome. This book will be required reading for my students working in areas of philosophy of education, political theory, and the philosophy of children's rights.--Jeff Morgan, University of the Fraser Valley About the Author Dennis Arjo is professor of philosophy and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Johnson County Community College.