John Stuart Mill’s essay On Liberty was published in 1859. It is dedicated to his wife, Harriet Taylor Mill, who died the previous year. A radical thinker and philosopher in her own right, Harriet Taylor Mill has some claim to be considered the co-author of On Liberty...
Mill’s primary concern in On Liberty is to define the boundaries of an individual’s freedom, which may then be protected from interference or coercion. He does this by means of ‘one very simple principle’ introduced near the start of the essay....
The Harm Principle allows for moral or legal interference only under one condition: to prevent harm to others. Actions and beliefs that are purely self-regarding and represent no threat of harm to others should be free from interference...
Mill is not directly concerned with the various basic freedoms that usually exercise liberals: the freedom to vote or stand for office, to buy and sell goods, the right to a fair trial or a fair distribution of resources...
Chapter Two of On Liberty – “Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion” – is the longest chapter in the essay. There is good reason for this: Mill sees his defence of free speech as a model of the broader defence of liberty...
Chapter Three of On Liberty – “On Individuality, as One of the Elements of Well-being” – is a passionate defence of individuality and diversity, and the liberty that allows them to flourish. Of course, Mill does not advocate unrestricted freedom and the standard caveats apply...
In On Liberty Mill is not only concerned with freedom from government interference, from legislation and prohibition. Just as important is the freedom to develop culturally and intellectually, to become the type of autonomous and original individual that Mill admired...
The Harm Principle states that interference in self-regarding conduct is illegitimate except where that conduct may cause harm to others. Mill’s statement of this principle explicitly rejects other possible reasons for intervention...
In Chapter Four of On Liberty – “Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over the Individual” – Mill acknowledges the connection between individuals and society, and attempts to draw a clear line between them...
The classical utilitarians were driven by an urgent need for social and legal reform. Utilitarianism offered a normative theory for distinguishing between good and bad laws. A good law was one which tended to make people happier...
Since its publication in 1859, the central claims and assumptions of On Liberty have been the focus of clarification, debate and no little disagreement – which is, of course, exactly what Mill would have wanted...