Q.4) Discuss Mills concept of ‘harm principle’. Is it right not to interfere with what someone does if it does not harm other people? Is it also applicable in family system? (250 Words)

Answer:

The harm principle states that the only actions that can be prevented are ones that create harm. In other words, a person can do whatever he wants as long as his actions do not harm others.

If a person’s actions only affect himself, then society, which includes the government, should not be able to stop a person from doing what he wants. This even includes actions that a person may do that would harm the person himself.

There are many actions which effects only the agent ‘directly and in the first instance’. They may still affect other people, but if they do so, they will affect other people ‘through’ the agent as all people are interconnected and no human being live in isolation.

Thus according to Mill interference is allowed:
– First, if by harming themselves, someone harms other people by violating their rights, then we can interfere with their actions on this ground. For example, if through being unable to control their spending, someone becomes unable to pay their debts or unable to support their children, then we can condemn and punish them.
– Second, a person’s specific duties can change self-regarding actions into ones regulated by the Harm Principle. If a doctor or policeman got drunk while on duty, they may be punished, because they have a duty to the public to be capable of doing their job during that time.

We have special obligations to our family’s happiness as a result of the nature of the family bond. If the harm that the person does to themselves ‘causes grief to his family’, then we can reproach him for not taking their interests and feelings into proper consideration. We may interfere with behaviour that hurts other people’s feelings. But other people’s feelings only count in the context of what we think morality requires of us in relation to our families.

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5 years ago

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5 years ago
Reply to  sourav singh

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5 years ago

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Reply to  Sravya

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