The non-interference perspective is common when theorizing about the protection of the private life of individuals and their families. However, this accepted way of looking at things, leads our thoughts astray. It fails to do justice to the interests both in being left in peace but at the same time participating in a community together with other people. New methods of communications interception, video and even satellite surveillance allow insight and an entry into personal matters, but they can also be used to satisfy people's need for protection, safety and security in public places. A theory about the respect for the individual's right to a private sphere and its protection ought therefore to incorporate both these interests. In “The Private Sphere” it is suggested that an emotional territory, which forms the individual's own sphere of action and experience, has developed in the course of evolution in pace with the individual's conditions of life, brought about by challenges in the natural and social environment. The starting point is the insight that the behaviour of human beings with respect to their privacy reflects in a fundamental way patterns of behaviour among social animals. The emotional territory allows a readiness to act along different lines and to maintain a multiplicity of different social relations.
Author(s): Mats G. Hansson
Series: Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture
Edition: 1
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 184
Contents......Page 8
A New Approach to Understanding the Concepts of Privacy and Integrity......Page 11
Juhani Aho......Page 13
Carl-Erik af Geijerstam......Page 16
Sven Barth......Page 17
The Private Sphere froma Historical and Cultural Perspective......Page 18
The Private Sphere as an Emotional Territory – A Psychological and Evolutionary Perspective......Page 19
Integrity as Something Which is Morally Worth Protecting......Page 21
Respect for the Individual as a Person with Moral and Political Authority – Integrity from a Philosophical Perspective......Page 22
Balancing Seclusion and Participation – Integrityfrom the Perspective of Moral Philosophy, Jurisprudence and the Law Integrity as a Quality Worthy of Esteem and Respect......Page 23
The Relationship Between Privacy and Integrity......Page 24
1. The Private Sphere from a Historical and Cultural Perspective......Page 25
1.1 In the Supposed Seclusion of the Home......Page 26
1.2 What Will the Neighbours Say?......Page 32
1.3 Power Over Spiritual Life and Thought – The Private Sphere from a Religious Perspective......Page 35
1.4 To Retire with a Book – The Private Sphere from a Literary Perspective......Page 39
1.5 To Participate in Drawing a Line Between What Is Public and What Is Private......Page 42
2.1 Emotions Which Are Constitutive for a Person's Private Sphere......Page 43
2.2 The Emotional Territory's Significance in Evolutionary Development......Page 48
2.3 Integrity – A Composite Property of the Individual......Page 52
2.4 Three Candidates: Fear, Embarrassment and Pride......Page 53
2.5 The Role of the Emotions in the Establishment of Social Order – Dominance and Submission......Page 57
2.6 The Experience of Self......Page 59
3. Integrity as Something Worthy of Moral Protection......Page 63
3.1 A Teleological Perspective with Regard to Integrity......Page 64
3.2 The Moral Value of Protection Originating in the Individual's Capacity for Sentient Experience......Page 66
3.3 The Moral Value of Protection from the Viewpoint of the Individual's Capacity for Action......Page 69
3.4 Integrity as a Socially Significant Property – The Starting Point for Moral Integrity......Page 73
4. Respect for the Individual as a Person with Moral and Political Authority – Integrity from a Philosophical Perspective......Page 81
4.1 Individual Freedom Meaningful First in a Social Context......Page 83
4.2 Individual Freedom Exhibited at Different Social Levels......Page 86
4.3 A New Approach to Self-Determination......Page 88
4.4 Social Recognition: From Separation to Participation......Page 90
4.5 Respect for Integrity as Social Recognition......Page 92
4.6 The Individual as a Person with Moral and Political Authority......Page 96
4.7 Participating with Knowledge, Insight and Influence......Page 98
5. Balancing Seclusion and Participation – Integrity from the Perspective of Moral Philosophy......Page 100
5.1 Is the Protection of Private Life Adequately Covered by Other Rights?......Page 103
5.2 Social Conventions Shift the Boundaries......Page 104
5.3 The Basic Interest in Avoiding Certain Types of Insight and Invasion......Page 107
5.4 The Value of a Differentiated Social Life......Page 108
5.5 Non-interference Does Not Solve the Dilemma of Balancing Interests......Page 110
5.6 Basis for Balancing Interests......Page 112
6. Legal Protection – Privacy and Integrity from the Perspective of Jurisprudence and the Law......Page 118
6.1 The Declarations Set the Basic Tone......Page 119
6.2 The Significance of the Private Sphere for Democracy......Page 122
6.3 The Right to Protect What Is One's Own......Page 123
6.4 Legislation Arrives at the Same Result but in Different Ways......Page 125
6.5 Focussing on a Careful Legal Process......Page 127
6.6 The Limitations of the Consent Norm......Page 132
6.7 Respect for Private Life as a Complement to the Consent......Page 134
7.1 The Continuity of the Concept of Integrity......Page 141
7.2 Being True to Oneself and Others......Page 143
7.3 Integrity as Both a Personal and Social Property......Page 148
7.4 In Contact with the Internal Goal of an Activity......Page 149
7.5 The Moral Substance Psychologically Grounded......Page 152
8.1.1 What Is Integrity?......Page 158
8.1.2 Why Ought One to Respect an Individual's Integrity?......Page 159
8.1.3 How Should the Interest of Integrity be Weighed Against Other Interests?......Page 160
8.2.1 Biosamples Taken for Different Purposes......Page 161
8.2.2 Genetics as Hyperbole......Page 163
8.2.3 To Be Left in Peace but at the Same Time to Participate......Page 165
8.2.4 To Participate in the Development of Medical Knowledge......Page 167
8.2.5 The Integrity of the Researcher and Persons in Authority......Page 168
References......Page 170
C......Page 179
H......Page 180
P......Page 181
T......Page 182
W......Page 183