Mill On Liberty

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Jeongho Ju
Professor Schendan
Poli 5: Introduction to Political Thought and Theory
11 Feburary, 2015
How hard is to be free?
From the beginning of the society, and up to date, freedom is still a hot topic in public relation between different individuals. Throughout the course of history, individuals fought for freedom for themselves, for their families and they fought for their countries. Due to the various opinions about generally everything in the world, and which also includes liberty, a lot of disputes were made. We all have different opinions based on origin, religion, traditions, gender etc.
The author - John Stuart Mills was a significant contributor to society and politics. He has defined his understanding of the liberty in his work called “On Liberty”. In this piece of work he shows his own theory that asserts social and individual liberty. Mill accurately focuses on the essence of liberty, its benefits and its implications. He believes society should respect individual rights to act how they want unless they directly harm others because they have a freedom to live their own life without walking on eggshells.
In the chapter III, the author tries to …show more content…
Mill believes that in spite of pressure from the public to conform and the legal power of laws, the person is blocked from a possibility of making meaningful choices, and therefore from his or her own development. According to the concept of utility, obedience damages community as well as the person in the minority, since in obedience individuals miss out on theoretically wanted ways of approaching life. The author believes that social progress requires a dynamic give-and-take between conflicting ways of life. Moreover, the author’s views on social development are closely connected his views on identity and conformity. However, with civilization comes obedience, Mill believes that it leads to social

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