1. John Stuart Mill
Born: May 20, 1806, Pentonville, London, United Kingdom Died: May 8, 1873, Avignon, France Spouse: Harriet Taylor Mill (m. 1851–1858) Education: University College London

2. Rule Utilitarianism (Mill) vs Act Utilitarianism (Bentham)
Jeremey Bentham Each act must individually be judged by the “principle of utility.” So rights don’t exist.
J. S. Mill No. The whole set of rules and rights must be judged by the “principle of utility” There are no “natural right” but there must be legal rights.

3. The Liberty Principle
Potential harm to other people is the ONLY acceptable ground for preventing me from doing whatever I want

4. Principles of Law that Mill would reject
*Paternalism – Laws that forbid people to engage in self-harming behavior
Moralism – Laws that forbid immoral behavior
Offense – Laws that forbid offending others.

5. Censorship
Should we ban Pornography? Violent Video games? Hate speech?

6. Two types of arguments for Censorship
Deontological
X is intrinsically bad.
Either it demeans persons
Or it violates a moral rule
Utilitarian
X is harmful
Either it harms the person who does it or it causes them to harm others, or both.

7. Pornography
For Censoring it portrays people – particularly women – as things that men may use as they like It associates sex with violence It leads to more violence against women It can encourage very dangerous desires
Against Censoring The Liberty Principle – Adults should be free to do what they want, except harm others. There is no conclusive evidence that Pornography leads its viewers to harm others.

8. Hate Speech
For censoring
Against censoring

9. Violent movies, music, video games
For censoring
Against censoring