Karl Marx And John Stuart Mill's Definition Of Liberty

Liberty as a concept is difficult to define due to its ambiguity and the diversity of its meaning and interpretation by specific individuals. The indistinct conception of liberty is highlighted by disparity in the views and works of Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill. Mill’s definition of liberty is complex and he approaches it from different sides throughout his text. Mill’s liberty principle is concerned with protecting the individual from the intrusion of society. According to Mill, the individual has the right over his freedom and the freedom to express one’s independence needs to be protected. It is in this sense that liberty is used throughout his excerpt. In regard to Marx, the concept of liberty is used interchangeably with the concept …show more content…
The Communist Manifesto is the core place for Marx to try and influence change in terms of arguing for the freedom of the proletariats. This freedom is from the capitalists whom have subjugated the proletariat to a low state where their life, relations, and the world around them has become essentially meaningless. Marx states that from the moment when individual property can no longer be transformed into bourgeoisie property, into capital, from that moment, you say, individuality vanishes (Marx and Engels 1978, 486). From Marx’s communist perspective, it seems that his aim is to eradicate the individualistic method of thought. Essentially what is delineated in the Communist Manifesto are the steps to be taken for the working class to be free from the oppression they have endured. Marx highlights this oppression by giving one example where he claims that the bourgeoisie, wherever they have got the upper hand, has…left no remaining nexus between man and man than naked self-interest…it has converted the physician…into its paid wage laborer (475-476). How then, does the proletariat obtain