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Nudging and Autonomy: Analyzing
and Alleviating the Worries
Bart Engelen
1
&Thomas Nys
2
Published online: 16 December 2019
#Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract
One of the most pervasive criticisms of nudges has been the claim that they violate,
undermine or decrease people’s (personal) autonomy. This claim, however, is seldom
backed up by an explicit and detailed conception of autonomy. In this paper, we aim to
do three things. First, we want to clear up some conceptual confusion by distinguishing
the different conceptions used by Cass Sunstein and his critics in order to get clear on
how they conceive of autonomy. Second, we want to add to the existing discussion by
distinguishing between ‘autonomy’as the ability to set your own ends and ‘autocracy’
as the ability to actually realize those ends (which is what most of the current discussion
is actually focusing on). This will allow for a more careful ethical evaluation of specific
nudge interventions. Third, we will introduce the idea of ‘perimeters of autonomy’in
an attempt to provide a realistic account of personal autonomy and we will argue that it
can alleviate most of the worries about nudging being autonomy-undermining.
Keywords Nudging .Sunstein .Manipulation .Autonomy.Autocracy .Perimeters of
autonomy
1 Introduction
One of the most pervasive criticisms of nudges has been the claim that they violate,
undermine or decrease people’s (personal) autonomy. In this paper, we analyze what
Review of Philosophy and Psychology (2020) 11:137–156
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-019-00450-z
*Bart Engelen
B.Engelen@tilburguniversity.edu
Thomas Nys
T.R .V.N ys @ uv a.n l
1
Tilburg Center for Moral Philosophy, Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, Department of
Philosophy, Tilburg University, PO Box 90153, Tilburg, The Netherlands
2
Philosophy and Public Affairs, Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam, Oude
Turfmarkt 143, 1012 GCAmsterdam, The Netherlands
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