Parental Compromise

Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 25 (2):260-280 (2022)
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Abstract

I examine how co-parents should handle differing commitments about how to raise their child. Via thought experiment and the examination of our practices and affective reactions, I argue for a thesis about the locus of parental authority: that parental authority is invested in full in each individual parent, meaning that that the command of one parent is sufficient to bind the child to act in obedience. If this full-authority thesis is true, then for co-parents to command different things would be for them to contest one another’s authority. The only course that respects the authority of both parents is for co-parents to agree to command the same thing. Further, what is commanded must not result from a ‘capitulation’ by one co-parent, rather, it should result from a compromise. Parental authority involves a duty to deliberate about which commands it is best to give the child. If a command results from a capitulation, one parent will rightly think of themselves as not having fulfilled their parental duty. Parental compromises are not best understood as bargains or conflicts, but by the metaphor of gifts given by each parent out of respect for the other’s authority.

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Marcus Hunt
Tulane University (PhD)

Citations of this work

Should vegans compromise?Josh Milburn - 2022 - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 25 (2):281-293.
Vegan parents and children: zero parental compromise.Carlo Alvaro - 2020 - Ethics and Education 15 (4):476-498.
Zero-compromise veganism.Josh Milburn - 2021 - Ethics and Education 16 (3):375-391.
Corrupting the Youth: Should Parents Feed their Children Meat?Daniel Butt - 2021 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 24 (4):981-997.

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References found in this work

Deciding for Others: The Ethics of Surrogate Decision Making.Allen E. Buchanan & Dan W. Brock - 1989 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Dan W. Brock.
Two concepts of rules.John Rawls - 1955 - Philosophical Review 64 (1):3-32.
The child's right to an open future.Joel Feinberg - 2006 - In Randall Curren (ed.), Philosophy of Education: An Anthology. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

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