Harm to What Others? J. S. Mill’s Ambivalence Regarding Third-Party Harm
Harm to What Others? J. S. Mill’s Ambivalence Regarding Third-Party Harm
John Stuart Mill’s harm principle holds that an individual’s freedom can only be restricted to prevent harm to others. However, there is an important ambiguity between a strong version, which limits legitimate interference to self-defense and therefore prohibits society from protecting third parties (those who are not its members), and a narrow version, which grants any society universal jurisdiction to prevent non-consensual harms, no matter who is harmed. Mill sometimes appeals to the strong harm principle to preclude interference, but elsewhere endorses measures (including humanitarian foreign intervention and animal cruelty laws) to protect third parties, suggesting that he subscribes only to the weak harm principle. This ambiguity regarding who it is that society has standing to protect has important implications for the scope of individual freedom.
Saunders, Ben
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Saunders, Ben
aed7ba9f-f519-4bbf-a554-db25b684037d
Saunders, Ben
(2022)
Harm to What Others? J. S. Mill’s Ambivalence Regarding Third-Party Harm.
Journal of the History of Philosophy.
(In Press)
Abstract
John Stuart Mill’s harm principle holds that an individual’s freedom can only be restricted to prevent harm to others. However, there is an important ambiguity between a strong version, which limits legitimate interference to self-defense and therefore prohibits society from protecting third parties (those who are not its members), and a narrow version, which grants any society universal jurisdiction to prevent non-consensual harms, no matter who is harmed. Mill sometimes appeals to the strong harm principle to preclude interference, but elsewhere endorses measures (including humanitarian foreign intervention and animal cruelty laws) to protect third parties, suggesting that he subscribes only to the weak harm principle. This ambiguity regarding who it is that society has standing to protect has important implications for the scope of individual freedom.
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Accepted/In Press date: 27 September 2022
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Local EPrints ID: 471476
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/471476
ISSN: 1538-4586
PURE UUID: da1c14d9-b744-4741-a973-10d6489a1c30
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Date deposited: 08 Nov 2022 19:08
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 07:33
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