The good life as a public good
By: [edited] by Govert den Hartogh
Contributors: Hartogh, Govert den
Series: Library of ethics and applied philosophy -- v. 6
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Dordrecht; Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 170
Subjects: Policy sciences -- Moral and ethical aspects; Political planning -- Moral and ethical aspects; Liberalism -- Moral and ethical aspects; Social values
Description: "According to the neutrality thesis, in designing state policies governments should not allow themselves to be informed by any particular conceptions of the good life. The aim of this book is to contribute to the debate about this thesis in two specific ways. In the first place, the limits of acceptable state perfectionism are examined, not on a general level but by reference to some particular concerns of government policy: transgenic animals, future generations, the promotion of the arts, minority cultures, the allocation of scarce health care resources, the integration of mentally handicapped people into the community, and the expression of national identities.

In the second place, the book as a whole evaluates the argument that the government has a special task to produce or to maintain intrinsically collective aspects of the good life, because these are to be seen as public goods."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-165) and index