Should the hate speech be criminalized? An analysis of harm principle as the foundation of freedom of speech

• Grant number: 19/25925-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2020
• End date: December 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Ethics
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Damon Santos Moutinho
• Grantee: Wellington Gonçalves
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In Stuart Mill's On Liberty, the author tries to establish a more objective limit for discourses that may or may not be legitimately tolerated socially. According to the "harm principle"-which establishes that discourse should be hindered whenever it causes direct harm to someone-any other criteria for limiting speech would be an abuse of the legitimate authority of the State. However, the question of "hate speech" and whether it has any objective impact on individuals poses certain challenges to the harm principle, like whether or not there is a need to reformulate this principle, or whether it is satisfactory as a demarcation criterion for tolerable and intolerable speech. (AU)