J. S. Mill: A Concerning Individual Freedom

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To begin with the ancient times, various scholars and philosophers around the world were critically observing the liberty issue. This question or issue even became complicated with the advent of initial states and cities since it became evident that limits of freedom must be precisely defined using a legal framework. These philosophers include Plato who was born in Athens around 427 B. C, and who is also known to be the first philosopher to commit his life to the philosopher of attempting to contemplate diverse issues in the society. It is worth noting that Dialogues are the most famous Plato's work, which involved various aspects of human life and analyses the issue of individual liberty (Pater, 2002). In particular, the dialogue about a …show more content…
S. Mill terms the liberty of an individual as a human life sphere, which is a concern of an individual at their personal level, thus developing a particular freedom framework. For instance, in a situation a person’s following own objectives and opinion take actions according to predetermined framework, then they are supposed to be provided with a full freedom of actions (Mill, 2001). Nevertheless, J.S Mill clearly indicate that these freedoms are only implemented in situations when they don’t harm individuals or the society. Moreover, in a case where the actions of a person cause indignation or disapproval on some part of the society without harming given individuals, then the action can may be considered permissible. Furthermore, society members cannot harm themselves in a manner that harmfully impact other lives (Devigne, 2006). Thus, it can be concluded that Mill expanded individual liberty boundaries to their maximum through developing the sole above exception and provided an individual with a scope of actions that is large. In comparison, Plato views human liberty notion within an ideal state pattern. This is to imply that Plato describes personal independence and individual freedom according to the utility it accords the entire society. This means that a person belonging to the polis can be termed as a free person if they act according to the society’s objectives, as well as for the advantage of the whole state (Klosko, 2006). It is worth noting that human liberty according to Plato pegs the social division into classes, categorized according to an individual’s ability to meet defined functions. The hierarchical society is crucial in Plato’s Republic because the description of an ideal state is simply politically stable formation. According to Plato, predetermined social hierarchy and deliberate inequality are the main determinants to justice and stability because the implementation of people's distribution is based on

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