The Metaphysics of Harm

Harm seems to have special moral significance. We have strong reason to avoid causing it and to come to the aid of those who have suffered it. But what exactly is it to suffer harm? In this article I try to go some distance towards answering this question. We speak both of a person's suffering harm and of his being harmed. I shall assume, provisionally, that being harmed is roughly equivalent to being caused to suffer it. Likewise, harming someone is roughly equivalent to causing him to suffer it. Suffering harm is thus the more fundamental notion. And I take it that to suffer harm is sim-