Children

by Archard, David

• ISBN13: 9780415082525
• ISBN10: 0415082528
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-07-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

David Archard offers the first serious and sustained philosophical examination of both the modern and historical concept of childhood, surveying arguments for and against the rights of children.'Childhood is unknown'- Jean Jaques RousseauResponding to Rousseau's claim, David Archard offers us the first serious and sustained philosophical examination of both the modern and historical concept of childhood.Challenging the idea that childhood is only a period of little reason and limited freedom, David Archard surveys arguments for and against the rights of children, considering that they are at least entitled to the best possible upbringing. Contemporary concern over the issue of child abuse argues that parental autonomy, 'I bear therefore I rear' is only legitimate when exercised subject to the child not being harmed. The threshold requirement for state intervention into familial privacy has to be determined by being balanced with the consequences of non-intervention.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
John Locke's Children	1	(14)
Coming to reason	3	(3)
Parental power	6	(4)
Conclusion	10	(5)
Part I Childhood
The Concept of Childhood	15	(14)
The Aries thesis	15	(5)
A note on `modernity'	20	(1)
Concepts and conceptions	21	(2)
Conceptions of childhood	23	(6)
The Modern Conception of Childhood	29	(16)
Separateness	29	(3)
The developmental model: childhood as a `stage'	32	(4)
`Childhood' and `adulthood'	36	(1)
The religious and literary ideal: childhood as `innocence'	37	(8)
Part II Children's rights
Liberation or Caretaking?	45	(13)
Children's liberation	45	(6)
The caretaker thesis	51	(7)
Arbitrariness and Incompetence	58	(12)
Arbitrariness	58	(6)
Incompetence	64	(6)
Children's Rights to Vote and Sexual Choice	70	(12)
The right to vote	70	(4)
The right to sexual choice	74	(8)
The Wrongs of Children's Rights	82	(15)
Rights are all-or-nothing	82	(6)
The impoverished world of rights	88	(9)
Part III Children, parents, family and state
Bearing and Rearing	97	(13)
A right to rear	97	(1)
I bear therefore I rear	98	(8)
A child's right to the best possible upbringing	106	(4)
Family and State	110	(12)
The liberal standard	110	(1)
The State	111	(4)
The family	115	(7)
Parental Rights to Privacy and Autonomy	122	(11)
Individualism versus collectivism	122	(1)
Privacy	123	(6)
Autonomy	129	(4)
Collectivism	133	(14)
Plato's proposal	133	(5)
The licensing of parents	138	(9)
The Problem of Child Abuse	147	(13)
The discovery of abuse	147	(1)
Defining abuse	148	(9)
Sexual abuse	157	(3)
Conclusion
A Modest Collectivist Proposal	160	(11)
Notes	171	(7)
Bibliographical Essay	178	(7)
Index	185