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Saplings or caterpillars? : trying to understand children's wellbeing
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Tomlin, Patrick (2016) Saplings or caterpillars? : trying to understand children's wellbeing. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 35 . pp. 29-46. doi:10.1111/japp.12204
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/japp.12204
Abstract
Is childhood valuable? And is childhood as, less, or more, valuable than adulthood? In this article I first delineate several different questions that we might be asking when we think about the ‘value of childhood’, and I explore some difficulties of doing so. I then focus on the question of whether childhood is good for the person who experiences it. I argue for two key claims. First, if childhood wellbeing is measured by the same standards as adulthood, then children are worse off than adults. Second, if childhood and adulthood wellbeing are measured by different standards, then we cannot compare them, and children are neither better off nor worse off than adults. This has some counter‐intuitive implications, such as that we do not harm persons by depriving them of a childhood, nor by keeping them as children for elongated periods.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) | ||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Philosophy | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Children and philosophy, Children -- Philosophy, Well-being -- Philosophy | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Applied Philosophy | ||||||
| Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0264-3758 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 24 March 2016 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Date of first compliant deposit: | 4 July 2018 | ||||||
| Volume: | 35 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 29-46 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1111/japp.12204 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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