The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence
E707112
"The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence" is a section of Herbert Spencer’s ethical treatise that examines moral duties to avoid harming others and to respect their well-being in social interactions.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Ethics of Social Life | 1 |
| The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence canonical | 1 |
| The Ethics of Social Life: Positive Beneficence | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8056943 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence Context triple: [The Principles of Ethics, hasPart, The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence]
-
A.
The Science of Ethics
The Science of Ethics is a major 19th-century philosophical work by Leslie Stephen that systematically examines moral philosophy and the foundations of ethical theory.
-
B.
Practical Ethics
Practical Ethics is a widely influential philosophical book by Peter Singer that applies utilitarian reasoning to contemporary moral issues such as animal rights, global poverty, and euthanasia.
-
C.
Institutes of Moral Philosophy
Institutes of Moral Philosophy is an 18th-century treatise by Scottish Enlightenment thinker Adam Ferguson that systematically explores ethics, human nature, and the principles of moral judgment.
-
D.
The Elements of Morality
The Elements of Morality is a 19th-century philosophical treatise by William Whewell that systematically explores ethical theory, moral duties, and the foundations of human conduct.
-
E.
The Person and the Common Good
The Person and the Common Good is a philosophical work by Jacques Maritain that explores the relationship between individual human dignity and the demands of social and political life within a Thomistic personalist framework.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence Target entity description: "The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence" is a section of Herbert Spencer’s ethical treatise that examines moral duties to avoid harming others and to respect their well-being in social interactions.
-
A.
The Science of Ethics
The Science of Ethics is a major 19th-century philosophical work by Leslie Stephen that systematically examines moral philosophy and the foundations of ethical theory.
-
B.
Practical Ethics
Practical Ethics is a widely influential philosophical book by Peter Singer that applies utilitarian reasoning to contemporary moral issues such as animal rights, global poverty, and euthanasia.
-
C.
Institutes of Moral Philosophy
Institutes of Moral Philosophy is an 18th-century treatise by Scottish Enlightenment thinker Adam Ferguson that systematically explores ethics, human nature, and the principles of moral judgment.
-
D.
The Elements of Morality
The Elements of Morality is a 19th-century philosophical treatise by William Whewell that systematically explores ethical theory, moral duties, and the foundations of human conduct.
-
E.
The Person and the Common Good
The Person and the Common Good is a philosophical work by Jacques Maritain that explores the relationship between individual human dignity and the demands of social and political life within a Thomistic personalist framework.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (37)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book section
ⓘ
ethical treatise section ⓘ philosophical text ⓘ |
| addresses |
duties of non-interference
ⓘ
limits of individual conduct in society ⓘ obligations to refrain from causing suffering ⓘ respect for personal rights of others ⓘ social conditions for peaceful coexistence ⓘ |
| aimsTo |
clarify duties of non-maleficence in society
ⓘ
define minimal moral requirements in social life ⓘ |
| analyzes |
how individual behavior affects collective welfare
ⓘ
the ethical significance of respecting others' interests ⓘ |
| author | Herbert Spencer ⓘ |
| concerns |
ethical constraints on social interaction
ⓘ
social relations among individuals ⓘ |
| contrastsWith | positive beneficence ⓘ |
| discipline |
ethics
ⓘ
moral philosophy ⓘ |
| focusesOn | negative beneficence ⓘ |
| historicalContext | 19th-century moral philosophy ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
classical liberal political theory
ⓘ
evolutionary theory as applied to ethics ⓘ |
| intendedAudience |
philosophers
ⓘ
social theorists ⓘ students of ethics ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTheme |
moral duties to avoid harming others
ⓘ
respect for others' well-being in social interactions ⓘ |
| partOf | The Principles of Ethics ⓘ |
| philosophicalPosition | that moral duty primarily requires abstaining from harm rather than active beneficence ⓘ |
| proposes |
that moral agents must avoid actions that directly injure others
ⓘ
that moral restraint is a key component of social ethics ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
individual rights
ⓘ
liberal individualism ⓘ non-maleficence ⓘ social order ⓘ |
| situatedWithin | Spencer's evolutionary ethics ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence Description of subject: "The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence" is a section of Herbert Spencer’s ethical treatise that examines moral duties to avoid harming others and to respect their well-being in social interactions.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence
linked to: The Ethics of Social Life: Negative Beneficence