Introduction to Political Theory

used above and consider social and economic phenomena such as wealth distribution or unemployment it can be difficult directly t ...

Mill’s aim is to establish what rights people should have by determining when it is legitimate to interfere with their actions ...

truth is advanced in the competition of ideas. This assumes that there is a truth (or set of truths), and the pursuit of that tr ...

even disastrous, consequences, but taken together experiments are over time beneficial. Mill rejects paternalism – that is, stop ...

Harm to others We start with some general comments about Mill’s harm principle, ignoring for the moment the distinction between ...

connection between harm and consent: if something is harmful to other people then we should be prevented from engaging in it. Bu ...

should a person not be allowed to consent to be killed and eaten? If we apply the idea of hypothetical consent, then we might co ...

give you the ‘motivation’ to avoid doing stupid things (and enables you to do things which, without the chip, you would lack the ...

right to criticise the state’s interference in their action. For example, most, if not all, states prohibit the private sale and ...

if they themselves are not offended, would probably accept that it should be prohibited. Mill’s argument does not follow from hi ...

other people are watching them could be grounds for prohibition. And indeed this is what legal moralists maintain: allshould be ...

with the concept of harm is that it always requires identifying harms to particular individuals or groups, whereas there may be ...

suggested: we presume that violence is a bad thing. Indeed, as we argued in Chapter 1 (The state), one important definition of t ...

to address the complexities of freedom we have discussed further liberty-limiting principles: harm to self, offensiveness, harml ...

Stephen, J.F. (1873, 1993) Liberty, Equality, FraternityIndianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund. Van de Veer, D. (1986) Paternalistic Int ...

Chapter 3 Equality Introduction Equality is a fundamental political concept, but also a very complex one. While the core idea of ...

Fair access or special privileges? I n 2003 the US Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in favour of the University of Michigan’s Law School ...

Principles of equality The term ‘equality’ is widely used in political debate, and frequently misunderstood. On the political le ...

would simply not occur to those in a higher stratum that they must justify their advantaged position, or that those in a lower s ...

opportunity would require, among other things, substantial spending on educa- tion. Indeed, given the huge influence that the fa ...