Lecture Notes on Mill, Waldron, and Speech Restrictions

Flashcards based on lecture notes covering Mill's Utilitarianism, the Harm Principle, Waldron's Dignity, and speech restrictions.

Mill’s Greatest Happiness Principle

Actions are right in proportion to the happiness they produce and are wrong based on the pain they produce.

According to Mill, the only thing that has final or ultimate value is…

Pleasure and absence of pain.

True or false: Mill thinks…

Whether or not one pleasure is better than another is solely based on its quantity or strength.

How does Mill justify the Harm Principle?

By using the principle of utility (Greatest Happiness Principle).

Mill thinks that harmful speech should ____ be prohibited by coercion.

Sometimes

Why does paternalism contradict Mill’s Harm Principle?

Paternalism allows us to coerce an individual for that individual’s benefit when the individual harms only themselves. The Harm Principle prohibits us from coercing an individual when the individual only harms themselves.

How did I propose in class we best understand Mill’s Greatest Happiness Principle?

Choose rules (principles) for guiding action that promote the greatest happiness (pleasure/absence of pain) when followed.

Under what circumstances would Mill infer that the pleasures that come with mathematics are better than pleasures that come with philosophy?

In the circumstance where everyone or almost everyone prefers the pleasures that come with mathematics to the pleasures that come with philosophy.

Fill in the blanks in this argument so that it most nearly represents Mill’s argument in Chapter 2 about freedom of speech. Nearly all expression of opinion should not be suppressed by coercion. This is because the opinion is ____, ____, or ____. In none of these cases should the opinion be suppressed by coercion.

True, false, partially true.

Which of the following beliefs about whether or not squirrels are space invaders would Mill most likely say is a reasonably held belief?

Dan believes that squirrels are space invaders, because he has compared it to alternative hypotheses, compared their relative merits and arguments others offer for the alternatives, and draws the conclusion after all of this that squirrels are space invaders.

Suppose you have only three actions available to you: X, Y, and Z. X produces a high amount of pleasure and a high amount of pain. Y produces a low amount of pleasure and no pain. Z produces a high amount of pain….What would this interpretation of Mill’s Greatest Happiness Principle say?

We do not have enough information to determine the morality of any of X, Y, or Z.

Which of the following most clearly and accurately applies Mill’s Harm Principle, keeping in mind the qualifications he puts on it in Chapter I?

Suppose that use of cigarettes mainly harms the users, but on occasion can harm others via secondhand smoke. Mill’s Harm Principle implies we have a reason to prohibit use of cigarettes on those occasions, although that reason might get outweighed by stronger reasons.

Waldron’s definition of having dignity?

Being an equal among others in society

What are people like in Rawls’ well-ordered society?

People all follow the same rules of distributive justice.

True or false: according to the standard legal interpretation of law on speech in the United States, if one cannot show that speech is connected to conduct in a way that makes it a true threat, an

False

Which of the following is most likely to be a behavior that Mill would favor prohibiting coercively?

Being frequently high on drugs and thereby avoiding jury duty

The corndealer example from the beginning of Chapter 3 of On Liberty shows what?

That Mill would deny that speech should always be free in cases where it is connected to harmful conduct.

When would an anti-religious sign in someone’s front yard rise to the level of speech that can be prohibited under the law, in Waldron’s view?

When the sign indicates to others that a particular religious group is not worthy of having a place in the community

Choose the best option for what Mill may think about R.A.V. v. St. Paul (1992) and/or the ordinance from St. Paul it is about, based on Mill’s philosophical views in the assigned readings and discussed in class.

Mill thinks that the ordinance ought to be adopted only if it can be shown that the effects of the speech the ordinance prohibits violate rules for the protection of society.

Choose the best option for what Waldron may think about R.A.V. v. St. Paul (1992) and/or the ordinance from St. Paul it is about, based on Waldron’s philosophical views in the assigned readings and discussed in class.

Waldron thinks that the ordinance ought to be adopted only if speech that causes anger, alarm, or resentment on the basis of race, color, creed, religion or gender functions as libeling members of a particular race, color, creed, religion or gender. incitement to imminent lawless action, or fighting words, it is unconstitutional in the United States.

Suppose a million people think an Instagram influencer with 25 million followers who also advertises and sells their own products did something offensive and immoral, and all one million of them decide to boycott the influencer’s products. Which of the following actions by that group of million people, or by some members of the group, would Mill most likely disapprove?

Everyone in the group follows a page that posts videos of some of them destroying the influencer’s products, resulting in widespread media coverage, and approving videos from many other famous people or influencers. (Mill believed that in a free society, people must be allowed to make mistakes, express unpopular views, and live their lives without fear of being crushed by public opinion. He warned against what he called the tyranny of the majority—when large groups use their numbers and influence to silence or humiliate individuals, even outside the law.)