In On Liberty, John Stuart Mill conducted a philosophical investigation into how far a democratic society can legitimately interfere with individual freedom, and the result was one of the most enduring foundation documents of political liberalism.
During the nineteenth century, the British
Each liberal platform, however, was founded upon the civil liberties of thought and expression. With Mill’s publication of On Liberty in 1859, this basic tenet of liberalism gained elaborate, almost religious, expression. A brilliant product of the utilitarian school, Mill intended his essay to be a practical handbook for “the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual.” The need for such a handbook originated in his fear of the potential antiliberal trends of contemporary democratic society: the threat of tyranny of the majority contained in the newly accepted “will of the people” principle and the growth of a state infused with this popular mandate.
Like the French writer Alexis de Tocqueville
In his 1873 autobiography, Mill
Mill emphatically points out that the region of human liberty includes three fundamental areas of freedom: first, the absolute freedom of conscience, thought, opinion, and sentiment “on all subjects,” and the right to freely express and write such opinions; second, the freedom to adopt any lifestyle, life pursuit, or life plan as long as it does not directly harm others, even though it may offend their sensibilities as to what is socially acceptable or proper; and third, the freedom of individuals to unite for any purpose if such a combination is not injurious to others and is freely entered into by adults.
Mill’s methodology is thoroughly deductive. In his introduction, he justifies the need for his essay, and posits the primary principle of liberty along with its corollaries. The remaining four chapters explore the collision of his principle with forces of custom, the dogmatism of religion, and the orthodox opinion patterns of the upper classes.
John Stuart Mill.
The chapter titled “Of Thought and Discussion” is particularly concerned with liberty’s historic enemy, organized religion. Here, Mill defends the individual’s absolute right of free expression by demonstrating the logic
To support his argument, Mill cites countless historical situations in which liberty suffered at the hands of authority, often at the expense of truth and always in opposition to the intellectual health of humankind. Mill concedes the right of society to deny freedom of expression when such expression becomes “a positive instigation to some mischievous act.” However, free expression, if it is to be truly free, must include the subsequent right of the individual to translate opinions into action without recrimination. A defense of this latter piece of liberty takes up the third chapter: “Of Individuality, as one of the elements of well being.”
In that third chapter, Mill brings to the fore another reason why liberty is so valuable. Unless society allows those living within its bounds to develop themselves as individuals—that is, as persons allowed to make up their own minds as to what course of life to pursue, within the limits of the harm principle—human happiness is threatened. Echoing the individualist creed found in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1841 essay “Self-Reliance,” Mill identifies a happy man as the autonomous man. He portrays individuality as the saintly condition of human grace constantly warring against the collective mediocrity of the masses and its mediocre political instrument, the state. If “the Sovereign Many” are to progress on a noble path the masses must be led by the “counsels and influence of a more highly gifted and instructed Few” not along the lines of hero worship but freely converted to the wisdom of the enlightened elite. Without a condition of liberty, enlightenment perishes and humankind is put onto a brutish regressive course.
In chapter 4, “Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over the Individual,” Mill again defends the right of society to interfere with injurious acts that flow from individual actions. He is, however, skeptical of society’s ability to distinguish between what is merely odious behavior and what is directly harmful to society. As examples of society’s overstepping its limits, he cites prohibition laws in certain states of the United States, American laws aimed to suppress the Mormons’ practice of polygamy
The final chapter of On Liberty provides readers with several practical applications of the principles interwoven throughout the essay. Here, Mill cites complex conditions that involve the question of liberty. In theory, he abhors the growth of state interference but fully recognizes situations in which state interference may be needed to protect the freedom of workers and consumers. For example, he cherishes the notion of free trade but condones public regulations for controlling sanitation, defending buyers from fraudulent products, and protecting workers from dangerous conditions.
Mill’s most frequently cited example of when society should overstep individual freedom is his contention that society should enforce individual education. He argues his case on the grounds that parents who do not provide for the mental health of their children commit crimes against the children and against society as well. Although he is opposed to state education as a threat to individuality, he favors state subsidies for families unable to finance private education.
Scholarly controversy has surrounded On Liberty since its publication. Some scholars have maintained, for example, that Mill’s distinction between acts affecting oneself and acts affecting others is a false one. Conservatives have argued that the majority in a society has a right to legislate its moral beliefs in order to preserve social stability. Questions also linger as to exactly how many of the ideas and their expressions in Mill’s essay had their origins not with Mill but with his wife Harriet Taylor,
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Berger, Fred R. Happiness, Justice and Freedom: The Moral and Political Philosophy of John Stuart Mill. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. Argument by a distinguished political philosopher that Mill’s theory of liberty can only be fully understood in the context of his perspectives on happiness and justice. -
Capaldi, Nicholas. John Stuart Mill: A Biography. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Exploration of Mills’s intellectual development that traces the influences in his life that contributed to his philosophy. -
Gray, John. Liberalisms: Essays in Political Philosophy. New York: Routledge, 1991. Examination of Mill’s liberalism by a noted Mill scholar. Gray compares Mills’s writings with theories of liberalism articulated by other prominent political philosophers of the twentieth century and analyzes the connections among these theories. -
Himmelfarb, Gertrude. On Liberty and Liberalism: The Case of John Stuart Mill. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974. Reading of On Liberty that finds it is consistent with the libertarian viewpoint. -
Levin, Michael. J. S. Mill on Civilization and Barbarism. London: Routledge, 2004. Study of Mills’s ideas of the stages leading from barbarism to civilization, his belief in imperialism as part of the civilizing process, and his thoughts on the blessings and dangers of modernization. -
Mill, John Stuart. John Stuart Mill: A Selection of His Works. Edited by John M. Robson. New York: Odyssey Press, 1966. Collection of Mills’s most important writings that contains all of On Liberty and Utilitarianism, selections from the autobiography, A System of Logic, and The Subjection of Women, and passages from eighteen other essays. Robson’s twenty-page introduction is excellent. -
Packe, Michael St. John. The Life of John Stuart Mill. New York: Capricorn Books, 1970. Engaging and thorough biography of Mill, based on a variety of original sources. -
Ryan, Alan. The Philosophy of John Stuart Mill. 2d ed. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1990. The discussion of On Liberty in the last chapter of this book explores the question of why it is wrong to coerce individuals into being better people. -
West, Henry R. An Introduction to Mill’s Utilitarian Ethics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Interpretation of Mills’s essay on utilitarianism.
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