PHIL 307 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Harm Principle, Paternalism
26 May 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
No person nor collection of persons has the right to lay down laws that are backed by coercive powers. No person nor collective agent has the right to coerce you into acting in ways that you might not want to act in and that aren"t required by other people"s rights. The most familiar types of restrictive laws imposed and enforced by governments can be divided into five categories: Those that prohibit acts that wrongly harm others (naturally immoral or mala in se) Those that impose systems of coordination on morally permissible activities in order to prevent unintended harm (traffic laws) Those that prohibit private conduct that is harmless (and thus not forbidden by natural morality), but which is for other reasons deemed wrong or unnatural. Those that require or forbid acts in order to protect the government or the state (as in laws prohibiting treason or requiring military service)
