The lecture explored the boundary between information and paternalism, examining how far public policies can promote awareness without restricting individual freedom. This raises a key question: how can effective policies be ensured without turning them into tools of behavioural control, while preserving individual responsibility and freedom of choice.
Key messages
- Liberalism does not impose a “correct” way of life: it protects the coexistence of different choices.
- The limit of paternalistic policies: prevention and information are turned into social conditioning.
- Sugar taxes and similar tools: limited effects and potential unintended consequences, often affecting the most vulnerable groups.
- Living in a free society means: not eliminating risk and error, but recognising and managing them responsibly.
The point is not to define what is right to eat or desire, but what kind of society we want: one that shapes behaviour, or one that trusts individual choices.
An open society recognises the complexity of reality, accepts the limits of both politics and science, and protects what truly matters: human freedom, even when it is imperfect.