McLeod, S. K., Shaw, A. orcid.org/0000-0001-7559-3224 and Tanyi, A. (2025) Needs, harms, and liberalism. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. ISSN: 1369-8230
Abstract
The harm principle entails the subprinciple that harm to others provides a pro tanto moral reason for legal or social coercion. We address a ‘scope problem’ for that subprinciple: how can what counts as harm be restricted sufficiently, without sacrificing extensional adequacy, to protect the harm principle’s liberal credentials? While recognizing the centrality of such basic liberties as freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of movement to any liberalism worthy of the name, a satisfactory solution to the scope problem must secure a distinction between conduct that harms others and conduct that, while it might negatively affect others (casually or relationally), does not harm them. We ground such a distinction in a further distinction between needs and attitudes.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
Keywords: | Freedom of speech; harm; harm principle; liberalism; moral powers; needs; welfare |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Leverhulme Trust ECF-2022-600 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 24 Jul 2025 09:05 |
Last Modified: | 20 Aug 2025 13:15 |
Published Version: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13698... |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/13698230.2025.2535868 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:229404 |