Nonmaleficence
Nonmaleficence is the ethical principle that one should avoid causing harm or injury to others. It is often summarized as a duty to do no harm.
At a Glance
Nonmaleficence refers to the moral principle of doing no harm or avoiding unnecessary injury.
Key Points
- Category: philosophical concept.
- Touches questions of reality, knowledge, morality, or human personhood.
- Useful only when disciplined by Scripture and clear definitions.
Description
Nonmaleficence is an ethical term for the duty to refrain from causing harm, especially wrongful, unnecessary, or avoidable harm. It is widely discussed in moral philosophy and bioethics, where it functions as a guiding principle for personal conduct and professional responsibility. In a conservative Christian worldview, the concern to avoid harming others is broadly consistent with biblical moral teaching about love of neighbor, justice, mercy, and the sanctity of human life. At the same time, Christians should recognize that nonmaleficence by itself is only a limited moral principle: biblical ethics does not stop at avoiding harm but also calls for truth, righteousness, compassion, protection of the vulnerable, and active obedience to God.
Theological Significance
Theologically, the term matters because doctrinal claims inevitably interact with underlying assumptions about being, knowledge, causation, personhood, or value. Clear definitions help expose those assumptions rather than leaving them hidden.
Philosophical Explanation
Philosophically, Nonmaleficence concerns the moral principle of doing no harm or avoiding unnecessary injury. As a category it can expose assumptions about reality, knowledge, morality, language, or human existence, but Christian use must refuse to let the category define truth apart from Scripture.
Interpretive Cautions
Do not allow abstraction to outrun revelation. Conceptual analysis can sharpen thought, but it can also mislead when terms are left vague, absolutized, or detached from scriptural truth.
Practical Significance
In practice, this term helps readers recognize the assumptions carried by arguments about God, the world, morality, and human life.
Related Entries
- Ethics
- Meta-ethics
- Objective Morality
- Moral theology
- Flourishing