Should market harms be an exception to the Harm Principle?

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Abstract

Many proponents of the Harm Principle seem to implicitly assume that the principle is compatible with permitting the free exchange of goods and services, even if such exchanges generate so-called market harms. I argue that, as a result, proponents of the Harm Principle face a dilemma: either the Harm Principle’s domain cannot include a large number of non-market harm cases or market harms must be treated on par with non-market harms. I then go on to discuss three alternative arguments defending the status of market harms as exceptions to the Harm Principle and discuss why these arguments also fail.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)221-241
JournalEconomics and Philosophy
Volume38
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2022
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • market harms
  • liberalism
  • externalities
  • Coase

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