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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Restrictions on A's freedom requiring A to benefit B may ... — Carmelics
    Home/Justice & Punishment
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Restrictions on A's freedom requiring A to benefit B may be justified on grounds of preventing harm to B, even if they cannot be justified on grounds of preventing A from harming B.

    Rights & Liberty
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.The harm principle permits restrictions on freedom to prevent harm to others.
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    • 2.Preventing harm to B does not require showing that A is the agent causing harm to B.
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    • 3.Good Samaritan scenarios involve harm to B that occurs independently of A's agency.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The harm principle, as Mill formulates it, is agent-relative: it justifies coercion only when A's conduct is the proximate cause of harm to B.
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    • 2.Expanding the principle to cover omissions collapses the distinction between negative and positive liberty, which Mill's framework depends upon.
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    • 3.Without this distinction, the harm principle loses its limiting function and becomes a blank check for paternalistic interference.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Robert Nozick's entitlement theory holds that individuals possess rights as side-constraints, not as factors to be maximized across persons.
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    • 2.Compelling A to benefit B treats A's labor and liberty as resources available for social allocation, violating A's self-ownership.
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    • 3.A forced-benefit obligation cannot be grounded in harm prevention because harm prevention requires a prior wrongful act by A, which omissions alone do not supply.
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    Topics

    Justice & PunishmentRights & Liberty

    Key Terms

    Freedom (or Liberty)(as used in ethics and political philosophy)
    The ability to do what you want without someone else stopping you or forcing you to do something.
    Grounds (or grounds for justification)(as used in philosophical arguments)
    The reasons or evidence that support why something is right or should be done.
    Justified (or Justification)(as used in ethics and philosophy of action)
    Having good, valid reasons for doing something or believing something is right—reasons that would convince a reasonable person.
    Preventing harm(as used in discussions of justice and ethics)
    Taking action to stop something bad from happening to someone before it occurs.
    Restrictions on freedom(as used in discussions of justice and rights)
    Rules, laws, or actions that limit what someone is allowed to do or force them to do something they don't want to do.
    harm(Used to evaluate whether failures to act constitute harms under the harm principle)
    Making someone significantly worse off than they would have been otherwise, assessed counterfactually relative to a baseline.

    Connections

    1 topic

    Moral Responsibility2 linked

    Related

    A forced-benefit obligation cannot be grounded in harm prevention because harm p...Compelling A to benefit B treats A's labor and liberty as resources available fo...Expanding the principle to cover omissions collapses the distinction between neg...Good Samaritan scenarios involve harm to B that occurs independently of A's agen...

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: mill-moral-political
    View source passageHide passage
    Notice that even if my failure to rescue the child does not harm him, he is nonetheless harmed by drowning. After all, he would have been better off had he not fallen into the pond and drowned. This suggests a possible way for Mill to square Good Samaritan laws with the harm principle. Even if restrictions on A’s freedom, requiring him to benefit B, cannot be justified on grounds of preventing A from harming B, they may nonetheless be justified on the grounds of preventing harm to B. This draws
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    +5 moreShow less
    Preventing harm to B does not require showing that A is the agent causing harm t...Robert Nozick's entitlement theory holds that individuals possess rights as side...The harm principle permits restrictions on freedom to prevent harm to others.The harm principle, as Mill formulates it, is agent-relative: it justifies coerc...Without this distinction, the harm principle loses its limiting function and bec...

    Similar

    Modest restrictions on liberty necessary to provide significant public...85%The harm principle permits restrictions on freedom to prevent harm to ...83%The anti-harming rationale only justifies restricting liberty to preve...83%The harm-prevention rationale justifies restricting liberty to prevent...81%
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit