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Legislation and Non‐neutral Principles: A Lockean Approach
Author(s) -
Tuckness Alex
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of political philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1467-9760
pISSN - 0963-8016
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9760.00107
Subject(s) - imprisonment , law and economics , action (physics) , epistemology , legislation , law , state (computer science) , object (grammar) , political science , sociology , philosophy , computer science , linguistics , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics
When citizens and legislators attempt to justify coercive acts, such as fines or imprisonment, they often do so on the basis of controversial justificatory principles. There are at least two ways a principle can be controversial: one may claim that the principle in question is false; or one may claim that the principle, correctly applied, does not actually justify the specific act in question. Thus, suppose the state invokes the principle ‘false beliefs should be censored’ to justify silencing a dissident. The dissident might disagree because she thinks the state should not be in the business of censoring false beliefs, or she might agree with the principle but object to the action because she is quite convinced that her beliefs are not false.