I ought not to be permitted to inflict unnecessary pain on any person unless there is relevant social welfare in that infliction.
Harold J. Laski: “I ought not to be permitted to inflict unnecessary pain on any person unless there is relevant social welfare in that…”
Editor's note · Context
Laski believes that inflicting pain on others should only occur if it serves a relevant social purpose.
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Ultimately, that denial is always made upon the same ground: it is insisted that the doctrines or practices attacked are subversive of the civil order.
The intolerance may be Catholic, when it insists that a unity of outlook is essential for the preservation of society; or it may be Protestant when, as with Calvin and the Socinians, it holds that the blasphemous nature of the belief…
To deny novelty or grievance a right of expression is a certain, if, indeed, an ultimate, validation of the truth they contain.
He is able, accordingly, to indulge in the twofold luxury not only of preserving his own authority, but also of assisting the persons attacked to enter, if they so choose, the way of truth.





