Rights, liberty, and the limits of the state
Even a legitimate state faces limits. Political philosophers ask where they lie and what citizens owe in return.
The harm principle
John Stuart Mill argued that the only legitimate reason to use power over someone against their will is to prevent harm to others. A person's own good is not enough: society may advise or persuade, but not force, someone to live more healthily. The principle protects free speech and personal choice, though people debate what counts as harm.
Negative and positive liberty
Isaiah Berlin distinguished negative liberty, freedom from interference, from positive liberty, the capacity to govern oneself and act on one's goals. A starving person may face no legal barrier to buying food, yet lack the means. Debates over welfare, education, and public services often turn on which kind of liberty a society should prioritise.
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is public, non-violent law-breaking aimed at changing an unjust law or policy, with willingness to accept the legal consequences. Henry David Thoreau refused to pay taxes supporting slavery and war, and Martin Luther King Jr. defended breaking segregation laws as loyalty to a higher justice. It shows that obeying the law and doing right can come apart.
Flashcard
Power over individuals is justified only to prevent harm to others
Check your understanding
Under Mill's harm principle, which law is hardest to justify?