Analyzing John Stuart Mill's 'Experiments Of Living'

Manraj Deol

Al Schendan

Poli 5

De Anza College

10/22/15

Unit 1 Essay

Experiments of Living John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty deals with Mill’s thought on the relationship between liberty and authority and how the authorities of society, customs/ traditions etc. can limit people’s individuality. On Liberty, especially Chapter 3 Of Individuality, as One of the Elements of Well-Being discusses the importance of individuality and not conforming to societal standards, eventhough society favors people who conform, yet we need freedom to support these so called “experiments of living”. I fall in with line with Mill’s opinion that we need to have “experiments of living” to see many different perspectives of life. What Mill means by “experiments of living”

These alternative ways of living are ways that you want to live, so when you get to pick how you want to conduct yourself in everyday life you are true to yourself or in this case your “nature”, but when society does not want us to indulge in the alternative ways of living then you have to do what society wants you to do and that is what is what everyone else is doing, not what you want to do. Mill articulates this well by saying “conformity is the first thing thought of; they like in crowds… they have no nature to follow: their human capacities are withered and starved: they become incapable of any strong wishes or native pleasures, and are generally without either opinions or feelings of home growth, or properly their own. Now is this, or is it not, the desirable condition of human nature?” (Page 70). Mill’s is saying that when society does not let us have these alternative ways of living we are not in our nature and uses a rhetorical question to prove his point. Mills also on page 69 says, “A person whose desires and impulses are his own – are the expression of his own nature, as it has been developed and modified by his own culture.” Basically, when you do what you want to do, in this case your own culture which would be the alternative way of living then you

I would say from a broad perspective religion has been around for a very long time. As you Professor Schendan said (I’m paraphrasing of course) during lectures religion nowadays somewhat does not matter. People pick and choose certain aspects that they like, or benefit from, or justify their actions in religion, but before the modern era people would follow every aspect of the religion. They do not follow it whole heartedly, just some of it. I am sadly, the same way. In my religion there are certain “rules” I follow and certain ones I do not, but then there are ones that you could say are “more important” which I would never break because if it was found out that I broke that rule(s) the stigma that I would face from my parents and community would be devastating. For example, in the Sikh religion it says not to eat meat, but I do eat meat on occasion. There is an “important” rule that says we should not take substances that alter our state of mind, so I would never consume any type of drugs or alcohol because I would be looked down upon. Mill would say the same thing he would say to me, as he would to the women. That it is a custom to not seek medical attention/ not consumes drugs and alcohol, but I am not making the choice and neither is she. The masses are making