Beyond Voluntariness

This chapter returns to the contrast between treating incentives simply as a form of trade and treating incentives as a form of power. The problem with the “trade” approach is that it tends to focus on voluntariness as the only important ethical issue to consider. To increase a person's choices always seems to be a good thing, but it does not settle every ethical question. The chapter identifies two conceptions of voluntariness: Voluntariness I (choice) and Voluntariness II (autonomy). Voluntariness I is a standard that can be met so long as the incentive is not coercive. Voluntariness II is a more demanding requirement that leads to considering—and criticizing— manipulative, exploitive, paternalistic, and seductive offers as well.