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Michael Lacewing
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© Michael Lacewing
Mill’s Harm (aka Liberty)
Principle
• ‘The only purpose for
which power can be
rightfully exercised
over any member of a
civilized, against his
will, is to prevent harm
to others. His own
good, either physical or
moral, is not a
sufficient warrant.’
What about self-regarding
actions?
‘Harm’
• ‘Harm’ means harm to our interests.
• The interests that count here are those that ought
to be considered to be rights, those interests ‘which
society ought to defend me in the possession of’.
• Which interests should be rights is decided by
utility, ‘but it must be utility in the largest sense,
grounded on the permanent interests of a man as a
progressive being.
• These permanent, progressive interests include
freedom, the pursuit of truth, and the development
of individual character.
‘Pursuing our own good in
our own way’
Negative freedom
• There are many causes
for someone’s inability
to do something:
– Genetics
– Episodic
– Dispositional
– Decision-based
– Resource-based
– Legality
Hayek
• Someone is free if there is no
‘control of the environment
or circumstances of a person
by another such that in order
to avoid greater evil he is
forced to act not according
to a coherent plan of his own
but to serve the ends of
others.’
Coercion
• Freedom is not being coerced.
• Coercion involves someone else
intentionally constraining my actions.
• Everyone who is not coerced is equally
free.
Berlin
• We need freedom to
develop our faculties to
conceive and pursue our
own ends.
• Freedom is absence of
coercion, but the extent of
our freedom depends on
which opportunities are
available to us, especially
their importance.
Positive freedom