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Book Cover
Book
Author Schoeman, Ferdinand David.

Title Privacy and social freedom / Ferdinand David Schoeman
Published Cambridge ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 1992

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Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  323.448 Sch/Pas  AVAILABLE
Description xi, 225 pages ; 24 cm
Series Cambridge studies in philosophy and public policy
Cambridge studies in philosophy and public policy.
Contents Machine derived contents note: Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. The meaning and scope of privacy -- 2. Mill's approach to social freedom -- 3. Articulated rationality and the Archimedean critique of culture -- 4. Social freedom from the perspective of cognitive and social psychology -- 5. The importance of cultural authority for morality -- 6. Explaining privacy's place -- 7. The ascent of privacy: a historical and conceptual account -- 8. Privacy and gossip -- 9. Privacy and spheres of life -- 10. Spheres of life: a literary exploration -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Index
Summary Drawing on a wide range of literature in moral and political philosophy, law, cognitive and social psychology, and anthropology (not to mention some very perceptive readings of novels by Henry James), Professor Schoeman shows how the aim of moral philosophy ought to be to understand our social character, not to establish fortifications against it in the name of rationality and autonomy
This book attacks the assumption found in much moral philosophy that social control, as such, is an intellectually and morally destructive force. It replaces this view with a richer and deeper perspective on the nature of social character, aimed at showing how social freedom cannot mean immunity from social pressure. The author demonstrates how our competence as rational and social agents depends on a constructive adaption of social control mechanisms. Our facility at achieving our goals is enhanced, rather than undermined, by social control. The author then articulates sources and degrees of legitimate social control in different social and historical settings
Analysis Privacy
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-221) and index
Subject Privacy, Right of.
Privacy.
LC no. 91040062
ISBN 0521415640 (hardback)