[SydPhil] UOW Philosophy seminar series

[Sarah Sorial]

Speaker: Associate Professor Adrian Walsh (Philosophy, UNE)
Date: Tuesday 4 September
Time: 5.30-7pm
Location: The University of Wollongong, Building 19, Room 1003.

Title: "Laisser-faire marketisation, Mill and the Harm Principle"

Abstract:
In this paper I explore the relationship between laissez-faire economic theory and Millian conceptions of non-intervention as embodied in the Harm Principle. Free market theorists typically assume any government intervention that is not a response to a genuine harm but involves a desire to promote is morally objectionable. In so arguing such theorists assume that a clear distinction can be drawn between mere hurts and morally considerable harms. Herein I raise two problems for such a
picture, the first concerning whether the Harm Principle rules out positive assistance when the recipients request such assistance? The second concerns what counts as a harm in the economic context. In the competitive environment that is a part of modern economic activity, is it possible to distinguish easily between hurts and harms? I suggest that if we consider these questions closely we see ways in which Millian liberalism differs significantly from laissez-faire.

Biography:
Adrian Walsh is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of New England.  He works primarily in political philosophy and applied ethics.  He is particularly interested in issues concerning the relationship between economic practice and values.  Amongst other things, he has written on the morality of mercenarism, the role of thought experiments in ethics, Medieval economic theory and the commodification of natural resources.



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Dr Sarah Sorial
Senior Lecturer
Philosophy
The University of Wollongong
Wollongong NSW 2522
Australia
+61 2 4221 5034