On Liberty

JS Mill reflects upon the principles of freedom and liberty in his iconic Essay ‘On Liberty’. He is particularly concerned about the limits set by democracy upon individuals ‘the only unfailing and permanent source of improvement is liberty’1, social tyranny and the so called phenomenon ‘tyranny of the majority’, which he argued that would question the definition of democracy, and especially liberal thought, ‘’Like other tyrannies, the tyranny of the majority was at first, and is still vulgarly, held in dread, chiefly as operating through the acts of the public authorities. But reflecting persons perceived that when society is itself the tyrant—society collectively, over the separate individuals who compose it—its means of tyrannizing are…

‘On Liberty’ is the name of one of the most famous works by John Stuart Mill. In his book ‘On Liberty’ what John Mill focused was in own idea of freedom, but he conjugate his points of view with the government, the state and history. This book explains to us how society evolves even in the time when was kind of hard to express your own ideas. Chapter one is mostly focused on liberty. It defines social liberty as ‘the nature of limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society…

In On Liberty, Mill (1859, p. 60-61) offers four reasons as to why freedom of speech is essential; to deny the opinion of another is to assume that our views are never erroneous; sometimes an opinion may only be somewhat true, therefore free discussion is required to discover the whole truth; although people may express an absolute truth, if it is not discussed then others will lack the comprehension to understand it in its entirety and hold the opinion in contempt; the withholding regular and…

Mill's philosophy of individual liberty places limitations on the freedom that allows human beings to form opinions and express such views without restrictions or prejudice. He explicitly professes his belief in autonomy unless a person indicates a motive that places others in danger and asserts that people are well aware that actions shouldn't be as free as opinions1. Consequently, opinions lose protection, when the circumstances and the manner in which they are expressed in constitute an…

LIBERTY This essay is a written accord of the theory of libertarianism, is liberty present in the current state of society, is it necessary to achieve peace or to reach a more enlightened society. How as liberty changed since its first conception, is freedom and liberty correlated or they 2 different concepts with similar ideals. What is liberty? What is freedom? What is independence? Then I ask you, are these necessary for peace, are there necessary for enlightenment. If you never had…

The western world has many freedoms in comparison to other nations around the world, especially in terms of political liberty; there are, however, many aspects of the political climate that remain turbulent. One of these aspects, the freedom of speech, is powerfully addressed in philosopher John Stuart Mill's novel, On Liberty. Mill argues that, “[i]f all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be…

the government. The people wanted protection against those with the power to control them. However, Mill worried about a much subtler yet even more devastating problem: the tyranny of the majority. While people were more tolerable since rulers’ powers were limited, they failed to see another authority, an authority that controlled them without their knowledge—the tyranny of the majority. Many times, this “majority” opinion developed, without society even realizing it, through the power of…

In a democratic society, it is generally considered the Government's role to promote morality and justice within its citizens and seek to restrict supposedly immoral and unjust acts. Thus if an act is to be considered immoral, it seems obvious to suggest that the government is justified in restricting it regardless of whether it is harmful to others. In ‘On Liberty' John Stuart Mill discusses the harm principle as: "The only purpose for which power can be rightly exercised over any member of a…

John Stewart Mill’s On Liberty is essential to understand not only liberty and the limits of government, but also on the limits of the majority and democracy to vitalize each individual to pursue his or her fullest potential. This is invaluable to understand for the best and the most prosperous path for the society to live in. To further explore Mill’s concept of liberty, two supplementary readings that I’ve used are a scholarly published article titled—John Stuart Mill and the “Marketplace of…

English philosopher, political economist, and liberal John Stuart Mill published one of his most famous works in 1859: On Liberty. Mill explores the innate and given liberties of people, analyzing what is the extent in which society or government has valid reasons to exercise power over its people. He argues that the individual should not be under the jurisdiction of society or government if their actions are not harming anyone but themselves. The only time society or government should involve…