JOHN STUART MILL’S “HARM PRINCIPLE” AS THE FOUNDATION FOR HEALTHY SOCIAL RELATIONS
Journal Title: The Journal of International Social Research - Year 2011, Vol 4, Issue 17
Abstract
This paper examines John Stuart Mill’s theory of liberty in the light of the contemporary society. It argues the thesis that Mill’s “Harm Principle”, to a large extent, provides the foundation for the emergence of healthy social relations, harmonious life, as well as the enhancement of arrangements, aimed at fastening together, the broken pieces of the already polarized and disintegrated society. The “Harm Principle” is an outcome and essential part of Mill’s theory of liberty as expressed in his famous essay, On Liberty. Thus, our task in this paper consists of a deep analysis of Mill’s “Harm principle”, as well as the identification of certain areas of social relations (such as socio-political relations as found in Nigeria, and inter-group relations as found amongst religious sects), where this principle can be applied for societal harmony. Since our interest in the application of “Mill’s Harm Principle” is provoked by the problems of our immediate environment (Nigeria), examples of our analysis of unhealthy social relations shall be drawn from Nigeria as a representative of plural societies. However, this endeavour does not pretend that such a theory is infinite and that its application would be done without some cautions against certain difficulties. It is against this background that the work promises to distill the limits to which the “Harm principle” is adoptable to regulate human behaviour.
Authors and Affiliations
Dotun OGUNKOYA
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP264846
- DOI -
- Views 143
- Downloads 0
THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN ENSURING FOOD SAFETY
The population of the world has increased incredibly during the last two hundred years. This fact puts the issue of providing food required by the humankind to live at the top of world’s agenda. In today’s world, around...
GÜMELİ WOLDS: AN IMPORTANT TRANSHUMANCE FIELD IN THE RECREATIONAL CONVERSION PROCESS
Bölüklü, Kartepe Bacaklı and Kızkulak are each by themselves important transhumance fields in Gümeli township of Alaplı municipality, which is situated within Zonguldak province in Western Blacksea region. Gümeli wolds;...
THE CONTRIBUTION OF TECHNOLOGY ON VISUAL ARTS AND ART EDUCATION
Science,which is in development process throughout history, has become a measurable, classifiable, and specifying levels factor of social structure. Science,which is one of the most important factors identifying social...
AN APPROACH TO MIGRATION PHENOMENON IN TERMS OF ETHNIC IDENTITY: THE CASE OF KARS
Kars province which is located at the North East Region of Turkey, has been hosted most of ethnic groups historically. Nowadays, five ethnic community which we can cal them as “Azeri”, “Türkmen”, “Kurdish”, “Terekeme” an...
TEACHERS’ TECHNOPEDAGOGICAL EDUCATION COMPETENCIES COMPUTER RELATED SELF-EFFICACIES AND VIEWS ON THE FATİH PROJECT
The aim of this study is to determine the technopedagogical education competencies, computer related self-efficacy and views on the FATİH Project of the teachers working in the high schools. The study group of the resear...