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The Objections Against Mill's Harm Principle

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The objections made against Mill’s Harm Principle do not succeed in objectifying the principle as an utter failure, thus the objections are valid reasons against the principle, and every individual is entitled to their own opinion and interpretation of principles such as Mill’s. The replies provided aid in showing that the Harm principle in not set in concrete, although Mill does provide his strong views on the topic of harm to others, this does not necessarily mean that every action that can possible be made by an individual is going to fit under the banner of what he deems as acceptable actions that do not cause ‘harm’ to others, and actions that he deems unacceptable because they will cause ‘harm’ and are immoral. Yes Lacewing is correct
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I will attempt to justify that John Stuart Mills approach to the argument of Freedom of Speech is the most valid, and the only instance where expression should be limited is where it causes an immediate harm or violation to the rights of others. I believe that expression should be limited when it causes harm to others or violates their rights. This view coincides with J.S Mill’s “Harm Principle”. I do not believe that hate speech should be prohibited as it merely

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Mill argues that each individual can exert his freedom so long as it does not harm anyone else (Mill 1863). What a person does in his life is his business, and I can express disdain or aversion to his actions. If neither of us infringe on one another’s liberty, we cannot act in a way that would limit or remove each other’s liberty (Mill 1863). Contrarily, for self-defense, society and/or the victimized individual can impede on the perpetrator’s liberty if the perpetrator has impinged on someone else’s right to liberty (Mill 1863). Harm to someone’s liberty, whether done actively or inactively, therefore should be legally condemnable (Mill 1863).

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This is a harm to the children and to the husband but it could be enjoyed by the husband in private. So some actions are offending and some are harmful so it is hard to relate which one was Stuart Mill talking about in his harm principle? Cause, a harmful and an offending situations are not easy to separate especially if there are different people involved. Lord Devlin in his book of morals he speaks”there are difficulties with relying on what an ordinary person would find morally acceptable” According to Mills harm principle he assume that one can embark on an action that doesn’t affect others.

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In terms of Mill’s philosophy, “even opinions lose their immunity when the circumstances in which they are expressed are such as to constitute their expression a positive instigation to some mischievous act. An opinion that corn dealers are starvers of the poor, or that private property is robbery, ought to be unmolested when simply circulated through the press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn dealer, or when handed about among the same mob in the form of a placard. Acts, of whatever kind, which without justifiable cause do harm to others may be, and in the more important cases absolutely require to be, controlled by the unfavorable sentiments, and, when needful, by

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One may say, “If I do something that’s only harming me, then society can’t step in and force me to do otherwise.” However, isn’t everything we do affecting other people in the society? For example, if a person were to not vaccinate his newborn and his newborn contracts a disease, it will affect others in society. In response, Mill would acknowledge that people are not fully isolated from society, and therefore the actions those people take will ultimately affect others and possibly do harm. However, he says, "But with regard to the merely contingent or, as it may be called, constructive injury which a person causes to society by conduct which neither violates any specific duty to the public, nor occasions perceptible hurt to any assignable individual except himself, the inconvenience is one which society can afford to bear, for the sake of the greater good of human freedom” (Mill 80).

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This relates to the second mistake I find in Rachel's case: He takes the definition of harm for granted. This is a purely moral debate, and, as moderns, we have to agree on the possibility of reaching different conclusions. Still, several things should be asserted before we decide on anything else. First, that when we act it is silly to believe that morals don't play a part ex-ante. This is because, independently of whether you believe moral truth is transcendent or simply an historical construct, it is always present in our minds and defines the way we consider an issue.

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In the Harm Principle Mill suggests that the actions of individuals should be limited to prevent the harm of others . An individual may do whatever he or she wants, as long as these actions do not harm others. Mill believes in an individual’s autonomy; being self governed. We can live as we wish, and therefor also die as and when we wish. As Mill says: “the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.

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In his book On Liberty, John Stuart Mill provides an ideology that justifies the interference of one’s civil liberties which then became known as the “Harm Principle.” In short, it implies that a person may do whatever he/she pleases as long as that action causes no harm to anyone else, and if it does, his/her civil liberties can be interfered with to prevent harm. One of the harm principle’s biggest appeals is that it ensures one’s individual choices that affect no one else, must be respected. One of the harm principle’s drawbacks is that it only interferes with civil liberties when you or other people are at risk of being harmed against their will. For example, smoking and the pleasure that person finds from smoking is usually a personal

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The tenet of paternalism has been the subject of thorough investigation and can be followed back to the times of John Stuart Mill. Paternalism is characterized as the activity of control over an individual and an obstruction with a person 's through and through liberty. Mill respected any outer intercession in singular issues, regardless of the possibility that conferred for the actor 's welfare, as an infringement of individual liberty (a policeman keeping a person from intersection an unsafe scaffold is a well - known illustration utilized by Mill). Mill 's "Harm Principle," denies restrictions on singular liberties unless such confinements lessen "damage to people other than the actor (the one disallowed from acting) and there is most likely no different implies that is similarly viable at no more prominent cost to different esteems. " The Harm Principle does not

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Mill’s Harm Principle provides no concrete limitations while simultaneously allowing for numerous loopholes. Criteria for those to whom the principle should apply “being of full age, and the ordinary amount of understanding” is extremely vague and its meaning can change drastically depending on the opinions of the majority. Each individual matures at a different rate which provides the governing authority with the rationale for dictating full age be whatsoever they chose in order to ensure all individuals sovereign for themselves are capable. The ordinary amount of understanding is also subject to change throughout history and eligible persons may cease to meet criteria as society advances.. The argument that no action can be perfectly harmful to only one member of a society justifies with the Harm Principle any and all intrusions on individual freedom by pointing out a possible harm towards another.

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Crime has been defined in general as an act or omission that has been forbidden by law and is usually associated with a sanction. John Stuart Mill, in his Harm Principle stated that an act should be criminalised based on the harm it has inflicted on other people. The State is justified in criminalising acts that crates unjustifiable and serious risks to others. A victimless crime is when a particular act does not have any victim or when the only person who is affected is the person committing it or when the person who will be classified as a victim has consented to such an act.

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John Stuart Mill, at the very beginning of chapter 2 entitled “what is utilitarianism”. starts off by explaining to the readers what utility is, Utility is defined as pleasure itself, and the absence of pain. This leads us to another name for utility which is the greatest happiness principle. Mill claims that “actions are right in proportions as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” “By Happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain, by happiness, pain and the privation of pleasure”.

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