- Title Pages
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Preamble
- 1 Liberalism
- 2 Freedom
- 3 Culture and Anxiety
- 4 The Liberal Community
- 5 Liberal Imperialism
- 6 State and Private, Red and White
- 7 The Right to Kill in Cold Blood
- 8 Hobbes’s Political Philosophy
- 9 Hobbes and Individualism
- 10 Hobbes, Toleration, and the Inner Life
- 11 The Nature of Human Nature in Hobbes and Rousseau
- 12 Locke on Freedom
- 13 Mill’s Essay On Liberty
- 14 Sense and Sensibility in Mill’s Political Thought
- 15 Mill in a Liberal Landscape
- 16 Utilitarianism and Bureaucracy
- 17 Mill and Rousseau: Utility and Rights
- 18 Bureaucracy, Democracy, Liberty
- 19 Bertrand Russell’s Politics
- 20 Isaiah Berlin
- 21 Popper and Liberalism
- 22 Alexis de Tocqueville
- 23 Staunchly Modern, Nonbourgeois Liberalism
- 24 Pragmatism, Social Identity, Patriotism, and Self-Criticism
- 25 Deweyan Pragmatism and American Education
- 26 John Rawls
- 27 Locke and the Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie
- 28 Hegel on Work, Ownership, and Citizenship
- 29 Utility and Ownership
- 30 Maximizing, Moralizing, and Dramatizing
- 31 The Romantic Theory of Ownership
- 32 Justice, Exploitation, and the End of Morality
- 33 Liberty and Socialism
- Index
Mill’s Essay On Liberty
Mill’s Essay On Liberty
- Chapter:
- (p.257) 13 Mill’s Essay On Liberty
- Source:
- The Making of Modern Liberalism
- Author(s):
Alan Ryan
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
This chapter examines John Stuart Mill's arguments in his essay On Liberty. It first considers Mill's early allegiance to utilitarianism as well as his reaction to the rise of democracy before expounding on the question Mill asks himself: on what general principle is the coercive interference of society toward its members to be organized? In particular, it explores what Mill has to say about the notion that we have the right to force other people to live according to our standards, noting that it is coercion that Mill is concerned to circumscribe. It also analyzes how Mill comes to think that utility implies the principle that the only basis of a right to dictate how others behave is self-defense. Finally, it evaluates Mill's views on other issues such as “antagonism of opinions,” bureaucracy, freedom of speech, individuality, and punishment.
Keywords: coercion, John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, utilitarianism, democracy, liberty, bureaucracy, freedom of speech, individuality, punishment
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- Title Pages
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Preamble
- 1 Liberalism
- 2 Freedom
- 3 Culture and Anxiety
- 4 The Liberal Community
- 5 Liberal Imperialism
- 6 State and Private, Red and White
- 7 The Right to Kill in Cold Blood
- 8 Hobbes’s Political Philosophy
- 9 Hobbes and Individualism
- 10 Hobbes, Toleration, and the Inner Life
- 11 The Nature of Human Nature in Hobbes and Rousseau
- 12 Locke on Freedom
- 13 Mill’s Essay On Liberty
- 14 Sense and Sensibility in Mill’s Political Thought
- 15 Mill in a Liberal Landscape
- 16 Utilitarianism and Bureaucracy
- 17 Mill and Rousseau: Utility and Rights
- 18 Bureaucracy, Democracy, Liberty
- 19 Bertrand Russell’s Politics
- 20 Isaiah Berlin
- 21 Popper and Liberalism
- 22 Alexis de Tocqueville
- 23 Staunchly Modern, Nonbourgeois Liberalism
- 24 Pragmatism, Social Identity, Patriotism, and Self-Criticism
- 25 Deweyan Pragmatism and American Education
- 26 John Rawls
- 27 Locke and the Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie
- 28 Hegel on Work, Ownership, and Citizenship
- 29 Utility and Ownership
- 30 Maximizing, Moralizing, and Dramatizing
- 31 The Romantic Theory of Ownership
- 32 Justice, Exploitation, and the End of Morality
- 33 Liberty and Socialism
- Index
