Abstract
This essay answers two questions that continue to drive debate in moral and legal philosophy; namely, ‘Is a risk of harm a wrong?’ and ‘Is a risk of harm a harm?’. The essay’s central claim is that to risk harm can be both to wrong and to harm. This stands in contrast to the respective positions of Heidi Hurd and Stephen Perry, whose views represent prominent extremes in this debate about risks. The essay shows that there is at least one category of risks – intentional impositions of risk on unconsenting agents – which can be both wrongful and harmful. The wrongfulness of these risks can be established when, on the balance of reasons, one ought not to impose them. The harmfulness of these risks can be established when the risks are shown to set back legitimate interests. In those cases where risks constitute a denial of the moral status of agents, risks set back agents’ interest in dignity. In these ways, the essay shows that there are instances when a risk can constitute both a wrong and a harm.
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Acknowledgments
Open access funding provided by University of Graz. I wish to thank the Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) in Sofia, Bulgaria for a fellowship that enabled me to develop ideas present in this work. Early parts of this essay were presented at CAS seminars and published in the CAS Working Paper Series No. 7/2015. I also thank Stearns Broadhead, Lukas Meyer, members of the University of Graz’s Philosophy Department, and participants in the 2015 ‘Law in the Risk Society’ Conference at the Utrecht Centre for Accountability and Liability Law (UCALL) for their comments on early drafts of this work. Finally, I am grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their insightful written comments.
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Placani, A. When the Risk of Harm Harms. Law and Philos 36, 77–100 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10982-016-9277-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10982-016-9277-x