Paternalism most typically refers to behavior, by a person, organization or state, which limits some person's liberty or autonomy for their good, or the liberty or autonomy of some group of people for their good. Some definitions of paternalism require in addition that the behavior is against the will of this person or persons, or that it is undertaken regardless of that will. Some definitions require in addition or instead that the behavior expresses an attitude of superiority towards the person or persons.

The word paternalism is from the Latin pater for father, though paternalism should be distinguished from patriarchy. Paternalism is sometimes thought appropriate towards children and paternalism towards adults is sometimes thought to treat them as if they were children.

Examples of paternalism include laws requiring the use of motorcycle helmets, a parent forbidding their children to engage in dangerous activities, and a psychiatrist confiscating sharp objects from someone who is suicidally depressed.

Richard Arneson is an American philosopher specializing in political philosophy who has taught at the University of California, San Diego since 1973. He chaired the department during 1992 - 1996, and served as graduate adviser. In 1996, he also served as visiting professor in the Politics, Philosophy and Economics program at Yale University. Dr. Arneson earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975. His work has largely focused on Utilitarianism and on Luck Egalitarianism. He is also a proponent of Prioritarianism.

Richard Arneson has also critiqued Marxism in great depth; he argued that Capitalism was exploitative for more complex reasons than the 'Labour Theory of Value' accounted for. He argued that surplus transfer was only wrong when it was the result of an unequal distribution of social goods. Therefore, under capitalism, the majority of exchanges are inherenly exploitative because the benefits end up in the hands of those who do not need it. Nonetheless, surplus transfer is legitimate when it arises independently or when it is used to compensate the unequal distribution of natural endowments and wealth.

Julian Le Grand is Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics (LSE) and was a senior policy advisor to former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Le Grand is the author, co-author or editor of seventeen books and over ninety articles on economics, philosophy and public policy. One of his recent books, Motivation, Agency and Public Policy: of Knights and Knaves, Pawns and Queens (Oxford University Press, 2003), was described by The Economist as ‘accessible - and profound’ and by The Times as ‘one of the most important books on public policy in recent years’. He was one of Prospect magazine’s 100 top British public intellectuals, and one of the ESRC’s ten Heroes of Dissemination.

He is one of the principal architects of the UK Government’s current ‘quasi-market’ reforms introducing choice and competition into health care and education. In addition, he originated and developed several innovative ideas in social policy, including one that became the ‘baby bond’ or Child Trust Fund, the Partnership Scheme for funding long term care endorsed by the 2005 Wanless Report Securing Good Care for Older People, the Educational Premium for the less well off and for looked after children, and the Social Care Practice in the 2006 Department for Education and Skills Green Paper, Care Matters.

Philip Collins is the founder and curator of Barometer World in Merton, Devon.

He has been a non-aligned district Councillor for the Clinton Ward of Torridge District Council since 2001.

He is the secretary of the British Barometer Makers Association and a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Colin F. Camerer (born December 4, 1959) is an American behavioral economist and a Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Finance and Economics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

A former child prodigy, Camerer received a B.A. in quantitative studies from Johns Hopkins University in 1977 (at age 17), followed by an M.B.A. in finance from the University of Chicago in 1979 and a Ph.D. in behavioral decision theory from that same institution in 1981 (at age 21). Camerer worked at Kellogg, Wharton, and the University of Chicago Booth school of business before moving to Caltech in 1994.

Camerer's research is on the interface between cognitive psychology and economics. This work seeks a better understanding of the psychological and neurobiological basis of decision-making in order to determine the validity of models of human economic behavior. His research uses mostly economics experiments-- and occasionally field studies-- to understand how people behave when making decisions (e.g., risky gambles for money), in games, and in markets (e.g., speculative price bubbles).