The Offense Principle

A detailed Summary of The Offense Principle


The Offense Principle claims that individual liberty is justifiably limited to prevent offensive behavior. I believe that the Offense Principle provides the correct liberty limit n principles that the state should invoke. The state should prevent behavior that causes shame, embarrassment and discomfort from pornographic material and cts.

There are three conditions that are typically understood to be part of the Offense Principle. The first condition states that behavior must be significantly offensive. A person burping in public is not offensive enough to be limited under this condition. But a man urinating as he walks down the street is significantly offensive and should be limited.

The second condition states that the behavior must be offensive to almost everyone. This is an important condition because I think that if only a few people find something offensive, does not constitute the act to be limited. Many people may believe that someone picking his nose in public is offensive but not almost everyone believes this act to be offensive, therefore, this act could not be limited. A man masturbating in public is offensive to almost everyone, therefore, this act should be limited.


tates that an offensive act should be limited if you have to go out of your way to avoid the act. An "adult" bookstore containing pornographic material should not be limited because one does not have to go out of their way to avoid the store. They simply just do not enter into the store. But a man and woman having sex on a bench should be limited because one would have to restrain from looking in certain directions to avoid seeing the offensive act.

Some people may argue with me and believe in the Principle of Legal Moralism, which states that individual liberty is justifiably limited to prevent immoral behavior. This principle seems to force morals on people. Every person has his or her own morals. If this principle was passed by legislation, rights of people would be taken away because of morals of others that are different from their own morals. Gambling (in some states) and homosexual relationships are examples of rights that may be taken away because of the Principle of Legal Moralism.

Many people argue that pornography exploits women. As long as these women are not forced into participating in the pornographic material and it is of their own free will, there is no reason to completely limit pornography like some people would like to do.

Pornography can be erotic, which is something that is designed to produce sexual arousal. Someo

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Approximate Word count = 915
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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