Behavioral Paternalism and Food Ethics: Political Justifications beyond Nudges and Public Reason

In recent years, the debate about paternalism has extended to the field of food ethics. Is it right to use the tools of nudging in order to steer people’s choices toward more healthy and environmentally sustainable options? And what is the legitimate boundary between nudging policies and outright state intervention? The paper tackles these questions by evaluating different perspectives on the justification of food policies. It will be shown that neither behavioral paternalism nor arguments centered on public reason can bridge the gap between political choices and individual conceptions of the good. This problem can be overcome only by interpreting eating policies as solutions to externality issues.