ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the Offense Principle. It discusses whether two constraints, additional to the criteria stated in conventional analysis, ought to be met before the Offense Principle can be satisfied: that offensive conduct must be a wrong, and that the conduct must also lead to harm. The chapter considers the Offense Principle and suggests that Feinberg's account of that principle is incomplete. It suggests that the distinction between directly harmful and offensive actions does not correspond to the distinction between the Harm and Offense Principles, because the scope of the Harm Principle is broader than is generally recognized. The deficiency in Feinberg's analysis lies in his equation of offense with affront to sensibility. The Harm Principle is about wrongful actions that lead to harm; the distinction between the Harm Principle and the Offense Principle does not track the distinction between directly harmful and offensive actions.
