This is an introductory essay prepared to open the 2015 Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics symposium on “The Ethics of Nudging.” After giving a brief description of the behavioral economics conception of nudging, I pose four questions designed to spur ethical analysis of the practice: 1) Is Nudging Libertarian Paternalism or Libertarian Paternalism?, 2) Is Nudging Ethically Justified?, 3) Should We Be Nudging Politicians?, and 4) Is Nudging Old Wine in New Glasses?
Some Noodging About Nudging: Four Questions About Libertarian Paternalism
Some Noodging About Nudging: Four Questions About Libertarian Paternalism
Recent Publications
- Debating Libertarianism: What Makes Society Just?
- Questioning the Assumptions of Political Discourse A Philosophical Analysis of Fundamental Concepts (2025)
- Common Law Liberalism: A New Theory of the Libertarian Society (Oxford University Press, 2024)
- “Diversity and Group Performance,” Encyclopedia of Diversity, Springer, 2024
- “Evading and Aiding: The Moral Case Against Paying Taxes,” with Christopher Freiman and Jessica Flanigan, Extreme Philosophy, ed. Stephen Hetherington, Routledge (2024)
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