What Is The Purpose Of John Stuart Mill On Liberty

This excerpt from John Stuart Mill’s essay, On Liberty, is concerned with his thoughts of Liberalism and how our free will should prevail in such a society. However, to understand the extract, we must understand what Liberalism is, it is essentially a “political movement…aimed at improving the welfare of all” and concerns the question of “the nature and limits of power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual” which Mill also seeks to answer.

The extract engages immediately in explaining Mill’s Harm Principle, this is also the basis of his argument as it explains that “the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over a member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others”. To understand under what circumstances our individual rights can be infringed upon, Mill explains that harm can be divided into two types; self-regarding and other regarding actions. It is the latter which “concerns the interest of another person”. In other words, if the interests of another has been violated, harm has been dealt. It is under this threat - the ‘damage of interests’ - that Mill agrees with interference from the society in order to prevent this. This exemplifies liberal thinking in that he believes we are free to do whatever we liked, providing it is a self-regarding action and did not affect other people.

He stresses that “his own good…is not a sufficient warrant [and] he cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him”. This relates to his argument that “he himself is the final judge” in deciding what is the best for himself. Therefore, this adheres to the principle of classic Liberalism, to increase the happiness of all in society by replicating, as closely as possible, the unquantifiable amount of freedom possible in a ‘state of nature’, but without the chaos that comes with