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On Liberty John Stuart Mill Analysis

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John Stuart Mill, born London 1806 was an influential moral and political philosopher. His philosophy which aims for reform rather than revolution formed the basis of British Victorian Liberalism. Struck by the elegant simplicity principle of “the greatest happiness for the greatest number” Mill quickly became an advocate of how utilitarianism might be applied in the real world. By creating an “indissoluble association” between the individual’s happiness and the good of society, one established a community where all individuals were allowed the freedom to pursue happiness. In Mill’s writing On Liberty chapter two “Of the liberty of thought and discussion” Mill sets out an important argument for freedom of speech in which a state without “the liberty of thought and discussion” was one in which the individual could not pursue happiness. Below, Mill’s discussion and emphasis pf freedom of opinion, and freedom of the expression of opinion, which he bases and argues on four distinct grounds, will be examined. Firstly, Mill’s states “the opinion which it is attempted to supress by authority may possibly be true. Those who desire to suppress …show more content…

For Mills it is important that when a belief is held, the manner in which it is held is just as important. It is important when harbouring certain beliefs and opinions one sees the significance and the grounds on which they are built as that is the only way to make truth of them. Hence Mills states without the ability to debate ideas and opinions we cannot establish the rational grounds of prevailing opinions but instead hold them in predisposition as we cannot make sense of

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Nevertheless, children or primitive societies do not get to exercise personal liberty because they are not capable of higher reasoning (Mill 1863). Hence, those of us capable of rationalization and learning have an obligation to care for them as long as we exercise utility in the process (Mill

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As stated in the previous case, Mill defines every human as having liberty as long as that liberty does not get in the way of others. In Case B, there are two arguments, Professor Prestille and Professor Mannis. Prestille is mad at Mannis because Mannis told his students that Prestille’s class is not a good class. Mannis tells his students that “postmodernism”, Prestile’s class topic, is a bad thing. This short essay will explore how this conflict would be seen using John Stuart Mill’s philosophy.

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Whether it is at the dinner table or in my family’s group text message, the conversation about my brother’s custody battle with my mother’s side of the family seems to remain a bitter topic, especially when discussing my role in it. When my father physically harmed my brother to the extent to which he had to go to the emergency room, the custody trial over my brother and me began. After several sources provided the judge with accusations against my father, I was the final source that needed to assert or deny my father’s abuse; with heavy consideration, I decided to lie to the judge by denying my father’s abuse. Under the principle of utilitarianism, philosophers would infer that lying is permissible if the consequences of doing so are good.

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Freedom is an important aspect in society. Living in the twenty first century, freedom is taken for granted, however because its so easily attained, freedom has never been seen as something important. Walter Lippmann a famous writer during 1939, argues in his article The Indispensable Opposition the importance of freedom of opinion. Although it’s written in the twentieth century, his argument still applies today. With the use of different rhetorical strategies,like interruption, persuasive diction, and metaphors Walter Lippmann emphasizes his opinion of freedom in society.

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John Stuart Mill’s essay, “On Liberty,” and Herbert Marcuse’s “Repressive Tolerance” each argue the value of tolerance in society. Their arguments converge in the belief that the majoritarian argument can be harmful, but diverge in their ideas about the value of free discussion of opinions. As a whole, Mill and Marcuse have contradictory arguments about the value of tolerance. Mill and Marcuse each assert that the opinions of a society 's majority can be repressive and harmful.

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“If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing than one person than he, if he has the power, would be justified in silencing mankind” (Mill, 1859, p.14). In the essay On Liberty by John Stuart Mill, written in 1859. Mill discusses his thoughts on the issue of freedom of speech and expresses his argument throughout the entirety of the essay. His argument states that society should be able to express themselves through speech without the threat of the Government or the tyranny of the majority interrupting the speaker`s liberty. He claims that as long as what an individual is saying does not cause direct harm on others an individual should be able to speak their beliefs freely without any consequences.

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Paine, Thomas, and Sidney Hook. Common Sense: The Rights of Man, and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine. New York: Penguin, 1984. Print. Annotated Bibliography Collins, Paul.

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My topic originated from reading Thomas Carlyle and John Stuart Mill 's debate in December 1849-January 1850. Both writers published anonymously in Fraser ' Magazine, with Carlyle writing a violent critique, ‘Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question’, and Mill sending in an outraged response simply entitled ‘The Negro Question’ that appeared in the following issue. Counteracting Carlyle 's very racist vision of the repartition of work among Black and White Jamaicans with arguments undermining that conception , Mill retorted But I again renounce all advantage from facts: were the whites born ever so superior in intelligence to the blacks, and competent by nature to instruct and advise them, it would not be the less monstrous to assert that

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Introduction: John Stuart Mill essay on Consideration On representative Government, is an argument for representative government. The ideal form of government in Mill's opinion. One of the more notable ideas Mill is that the business of government representatives is not to make legislation. Instead Mill suggests that representative bodies such as parliaments and senates are best suited to be places of public debate on the various opinions held by the population and to act as watchdogs of the professionals who create and administer laws and policy.

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It was not until Mill’s late teens that he began to study Jeremy Bentham and his utilitarianism theory. “Reading Bentham satisfied Mill’s cravings for scientific precision and gave him a new way of looking at social intercourse” (Buchholz 97). Mill became so intrigued with Bentham that he decided to preach the Benthamite gospel in the Westminster Review, a publication started by his father and Jeremy Bentham. Mill’s views soon changed as he grew older. It is said that Mill had a mid-life crisis at the age of twenty because he took the Bentamite precision too far and actually forgot the ultimate goal of Utilitarianism in the first place, happiness.

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The book On Liberty, is one of philosophical and most famous work written by John Stuart Mill in 1859. In the book, J.S. Mill applies his utilitarian concept to the history and the state. There he attempts to exhibit the idea that the society advances from lower to higher places this advance comes full circle in the development of an arrangement of delegate democracy. This writing consists total of five chapters which consists of introduction, the liberty of thought and discussion, individuality, as one of the elements of well-being, the limits to the authority of society over the individual and multiple applications of the theory.

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