Lecherous millionaire
The lecherous millionaire is a thought experiment devised by Joel Feinberg to illustrate questions concerning coercion. It presents a scenario in which a millionaire offers to pay for medical care for a woman's ill child on the condition that she has sexual relations with him. It is arguable that the millionaire is coercing the woman: from the woman's point of view, the millionaire's offer is equivalent to 'sleep with me or your child dies', which is on par with the millionaire pointing a gun at the child while demanding sexual favors. On the other hand, the millionaire's offer increases the woman's options without removing any of her pre-existing options, giving her increased freedom of choice; this is arguably not coercive.[1]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Coercive and noncoercive proposals". Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
Further reading
[edit]- Barrera, Albino (2005). Economic Compulsion and Christian Ethics. Cambridge University Press. pp. 11–2. ISBN 9780521853415.
- Feinberg, Joel (1986). Harm to Self. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195037463.
- Hunt, I. (2001). "Overall Freedom and Constraint". Inquiry. 44 (2): 131–147. doi:10.1080/002017401750261545. S2CID 143462911.
- Wertheimer, Alan (2003). Consent to Sexual Relations. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521536110.
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