The problem with manipulation
2003; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 40; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2152-1123
Autores Tópico(s)Free Will and Agency
ResumoJL here is a well-known scene from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer that illustrates what might be considered benign manipu? lation: Tom has the job of whitewashing a fence but would rather spend the time with friends. By feigning enthusiasm for the job he manages to get his friends to hang around and do it for him. They even pay to do it?with various little items that he later trades for coupons earning a Sunday School achievement award.1 No harm is done here, and some might dismiss any,complaints. Manipulation is often commended in popular literature as a people-management skill. In philosophic literature it comes up mainly as a side issue in work focused on subjects that raise more politically worrisome issues of freedom and unfreedom, such as coercion and exploita? tion, or questions of psychological unfree? dom in the free will literature.2
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