PP110 Study Guide - John Stuart Mill, Morality, Harm Principle
Document Summary
My freedom ends at the tip of your nose john stuart mill. The state can only intervene when other people are harmed. Placing limitations on individual liberty in the interests of clear moral standards. 2 reasons to oppose legal moralism: no victim= no crime (think of the harm principle, there is too much disagreement about values in society to allow the state to impose values on individuals in cases like this. People can be harmed by having their sense of decency offended, and so activities which do this can be supressed. Narrow harm: purely physical in nature, comprising harm to one s person or property. Broad harm: more psychological in nature, comprising one s mental states and values. The danger of suppressing offensive speech: mill says this will tend to discourage non- conformist and eccentric expression. Two ways speech can harm: narrowly: by inciting people to physically assault another s persons or property, broadly: by offending our values.
