Description: 'Childhood is unknown'- Jean Jaques RousseauResponding to Rousseau's claim, David Archard offers us the first serious and sustained philosophical examination of both the modern and historical concept of childhood.Challenging the idea that childhood is only a period of little reason and limited freedom, David Archard surveys arguments for and against the rights of children, considering that they are at least entitled to the best possible upbringing. Contemporary concern over the issue of child abuse argues that parental autonomy, 'I bear therefore I rear' is only legitimate when exercised subject to the child not being harmed. The threshold requirement for state intervention into familial privacy has to be determined by being balanced with the consequences of non-intervention.

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