Ethics

Ethics Study Guide they are. Absolute rights are rights that cannot be interfered with lawfully, no matter how important the public interest in doing so might be. Absolute rights grow from the concept of self-ownership; a person owns his or her own body, and that body’s labor, and the fruits of that labor. Nozick posited that absolute rights justified libertarianism, anarchy, and the minimal state. 7.4 Liberty Four principles have been advanced as justifications for legal restrictions on the liberty of individuals: 1. Th h rm pri ciple holds that individual liberty is justifiably limited to prevent harm to others. John Stuart Mill claims that only the harm principle can justify the limitation of liberty. This principle is the most widely accepted. 2. The principle of legal paternalism involves the state acting like a parent and forcing the citizen to behave in his/her own best interests by restricting individual liberty. Individual liberty is justifiably limited to prevent harm to self. In modern philosophy and law, it is described as an act for the good of another person without that person’s consent, as parents do for children. At the expense of liberty, paternalists believe they can make better decisions than the people for whom they act. The principle of paternalism can arise in any situation where people hold power over others, such as parenting, education, and medicine. It seems most controversial in cases of criminal law, where the state seeks to protect a person’s good by acting to protect the person from him/herself. The state does this coercively, often against a person’s will. John Stuart Mill clearly rejects this principle as a basis for limiting liberty. 3. The principle of legal moralism involves laws prohibiting what is offensive to the majority of a community, or actions seen as destroying the fabric of a society. It states individual liberty is justifiably limited to prevent immoral behavior. Legal moralism is usually reserved for so-called victimless crimes. If there were victims, the harm or legal paternalist principles might apply. The opinion of the majority of the community is usually used to determine what is moral and immoral. John Stuart Mill rejects this liberty-limiting principle because it represents what he calls the “tyranny of the majority.” 4. The offense principle believes individual liberty is justifiably limited to prevent offensive behaviors. It is based on three conditions: a. The behavior must be significantly offensive to be limited. b. The behavior must be offensive to almost everyone. c. The offensive act should be limited if you have to go out of your way to avoid the act. ©2018 Achieve Page 54 of 116