Question

Read the excerpt below and answer the question.

Answer 1

The key here is not to harm another. All of the answers can be harmful towards another except playing music loudly, without interfering with the neighbors. Not paying taxes, bomb threats, and vigilantism are all detrimental to others.

Answer 2

The correct answer is: A person should be allowed to play her music as loud as she wants, so long as it does not disturb the peace of her neighbors.

Indeed, the excerpt comes from John Stuart Mill, a British philosopher who supported individual rights and called for limitation of social and state control. The chosen sentence deals with his harm principle: that no individual behavior should be forbidden unless it harms others. If this hypothetical person plays her music as loud as she wants but the neighbors are not disturbed by it, she should be allowed to continue doing so because her behavior does not harm others.