PHI-2630 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Hate Speech, Harm Principle, On Liberty
Document Summary
Phi2630 notes september 22nd and 27th and 29th. Grievances: constitutionally unprotected categories: libel, incitement to lawlessness, obscenity, and fighting words. A liberty-limiting principle according to which a government may justifiably pass laws to limit the liberty of its citizens in order to prohibit individuals from causing harm to individuals or to society (tb, 749) Harm an action causes harm if it directly undermines the rights of another person (or a group of people), related to one"s interests being frustrated or defeated. Mill: on liberty (1859: the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually, or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. Harm that derives from the kind of attitude expressed in the very act of hate speech; it is independent of the casual effects of such a speech act. The principle asserts, in effect, that the prevention of offensive conduct is properly the state"s business.
