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John Stuart Mill On Liberty Analysis

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John Stuart Mill was a transitional thinker with a classical utilitarian philosophy. He was a programmatic thinker with a lifelong project to reconstruct the classical utilitarianism. In this collection of On Liberty and Other Essays, Mill is representing his central moral and political concerns for his time. On Liberty is the first essay in the book, followed by other essays such as Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women, and then lastly Considerations on Representative Government. John Stuart Mill in his On Liberty essay breaks it up into five chapters supporting his argument that liberty is what is best for mankind and that society should only have power to control actions that directly affect it or harms its members. In this paper, I will …show more content…

People should not be allowed to limit or silence anyone else’s thoughts and expression of these thoughts. By silencing a person for a particular opinion would be hurting humanity. Mill claims, “if any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true.” Mill is claiming that any suppressed opinion could be true, and no one has the authority to decide that others should not be able to hear these opinions. For this would hurt humanity because one human being does not have the authority to decide an issue for all. This would keep others from coming up with their own opinions on the subject. Mill also claims that the silence opinion might contain a portion of truth. By silencing the opinion, it would hurt humanity in that the whole truth does not have a chance of being brought forth because a portion would be missing. This is limiting the liberty of discussion because discussing an opinion can bring out the errors of the opinion but bring out the truth it can hold for a different opinion. By having liberty of thoughts and discussion other truths can be brought forth and discussed. If true opinion is not debated the meaning of the opinion can be lost. Truth could also be somewhere in between two opinions and if these opinions, or even one, is suppressed the real truth cannot be found. Another argument Mill has in favor of the liberty of thought is that if truth is …show more content…

This would be challenging Mill’s views liberty of the limits of authority on a society. Since Mill believes that society should step in when there is harm to others and the actions affect the society as a whole, he would see the laws on gun control as a challenge for this liberty because a majority of society wants these laws to be changed and when the majority wants a change society is supposed to step in and help make it happen. Also, since school shootings and gun control are affecting the society as a whole with many deaths and protests are now taking place to have more restrictions on guns, this would be challenging the liberty since society is not making a change to benefit the whole of society that is currently being harmed. However, those protesting are using their rights and fulling Mill’s view on the liberty of thoughts and discussion by making their ideas heard and getting the opinions of others in a peaceful way that does not harm others. Also, it reflects his view of the liberty of individuals and originality since these discussions and protests bringing new ideas to focus. Furthermore, pointing out “when what was once truths are no longer true.” The protests are bringing forth points that a law that was placed years ago no longer benefits the society as a whole but rather harms it. These laws were once beneficial but now need to be changed to benefit the whole society and prevent

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Without freedom of speech, it would also eliminate freedom of the press or freedom of petition, preventing any uproars or rebellions against unfair or controversial policies, laws, beliefs, or actions. A common example of oppressing society via their freedoms would be a lack of freedom of religion, where the government only endorses one religion and nobody can speak otherwise. If a certain religion was outlawed, there must be several other practices outlawed because they are customs of said outlawed religion, while also practices that are not approved within endorsed religion would also be prohibited. For example, in The Scarlet Letter, the Puritans own Boston, and the citizens of Boston must follow the rules of Puritanism or they have harsh consequences such as standing on a scaffold or going to prison. Within that example, most of the population in the book is in the “solemn mood of the popular mind”.

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It might take away a person’s ability to speak freely, or keep some books from being written. They wanted people’s rights

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By the freedom of opinion, cannot be meant the right of thinking merely; for of this right the greatest Tyrant cannot deprive his meanest slave; but it is freedom in the communication of sentiments [by] speech or through the press” (Voices of Freedom, Chapter

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The author continuously relies on a series of factual events that relate to what her particular arguments are. She attempts to prove to the reader that acting because of moral authority is what brings some of the biggest changes in society today. She states, “There are as many reasons to hope as to fear a new disappointment…” (pg.899) demonstrating to the reader than a protesters’ actions will not always result in a positive outcome. The style chosen by the author suits her purpose of giving the reader a clear view on what moral authority is and how it can impact the

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Straight from the heart is a wonderful, but depressing passage narrated by a journalist named Tim Collins. The passage is about the tragic speech spoken by Marie Fatayi- Williams and the terroristic incident that lead to the possible killing of her son Anthony Fatayi- Williams. Marie’s speech is fueled by a couple different topics, which in their entirety explain how she feels about the loss of her son to be a traumatic event. These topics make the speech very powerful and meaningful to the audience according to Collins. The narration is primarily to explain why Marias speech is so powerful and why it inspired and touched so many people’s hearts, while Marie defies the pointlessness of terroristic acts followed by the tragedy.

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The object of this essay is to show a simple evaluation of john Stuart mill principle “an action is right that it does not cause harm to another person” I will be exercising both evaluations and explaining why the positive side outweighs the negative side of the principle, in a society that it’s people are emancipated to control their own opinions. Mill Stuart in his autobiography of 1873 he narrates liberty as a philosophic chronicle of indivisible accuracy. (Mill (1989.edn).p.189) rather than speaking of rights, many claim a ‘right’ not to be harmed ,mill says that only a harm or risk to harm is enough vindication for using power above someone else. John Stuart moreover he adequate his principle by reckoning that it is not good to use power

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Throughout history, people have been willing to die in protest against authorities for their ideas and their freedom of thought. The British tried to silence Gandhi when he fought to end imperialism in India and lead his homeland to independence. Some authoritative figures tried to silence Martian Luther King Jr when he fought against the accepted discrimination of the day and led the Civil Rights Movement. These two, and many more, believed that freedom of thought and their ability to express those thoughts despite was something worth dying for. The book Fahrenheit 451 emphasizes the importance of standing up for your ideas and freedom of thought.

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The theory also discusses falsehoods and their place in the marketplace of ideas. The theory places falsehoods as a very important part of the marketplace, because falsehoods contribute to the integrity of the truths. The article then goes on to discuss the importance of Intellectual Freedom and Freedom of Speech in democracy. Oltmann states that Freedom of Speech is necessary to democracy because it allows the circulation of free thought and opinions that then lead to political involvement of Americans. The source then discusses the place that the library and IF

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Not only does it encourage individuals to question authority no matter how high the power, but it also elucidates how man does not simply take what is told them as a primary source. They choose to dig deeper to find out the true value of what believe needs to be protested against or not. Henry David Thoreau explains that in reality "It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous, wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support. ". Through this idea, Henry indicates how individuals genuinely wish to be involved in politics. They choose not believe that the government hold the people's best intentions at heart, and choose to investigate the debates at hand on their own.

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On the other hand, Mill’s views against censorship are also as important as the freedom to hold an opinion. There are two ways you can portray these views. You can look at it as humans being fallible. For example people have been convinced that the earth is round and it does not move and centuries ago, Pharaoh and Cleopatra were gods. It just all matters whichever the future generations will dismiss as inaccurate.

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For humankind and society to advance, it is necessary for the people to have basic human rights. In the book, Fahrenheit 451, citizens in Phoenix are given little to no rights -- one of which are the rights of speech. Those who want to speak up in the city of Phoenix will be hunted down as criminals; compared to our modern society, freedom of speech is what shapes our community and society as a whole. Speech is what improves society, and let’s society thrive on the indifferences of the community. The community in Fahrenheit 451 is full of ignorance and oblivion.

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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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A Constitutional Perspective on The Preservation of Liberty To establish which amendment in the Bill of Rights is the most influential to the preservation of liberty, one must first determine the true meaning of the word liberty. The Oxford dictionary defines liberty as “The state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behaviour, or political views.” Not only is this one of the core values ingrained into the base of our American culture, but it is also one of the main characteristics of a successful community (“First Amendment.”) Many societies argue that citizens do not have basic rights, the first amendment does the best job at protecting the nation's rights from the government by giving individuals freedom of speech, religion, and freedom of petition. The First Amendment has five freedoms guaranteed for the American people’s such as the right to religion, speech, and petition.

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The fact that one has the right to say and believe is the foundation for democracy to function. If no one dared to say their opinions, then it had become a dictatorship where only one opinion on how society and the country should work had been the “right”. If people dared to express their opinions, they will help improving the society one lives. Freedom of speech gives one the responsibility to consider what fits into different contexts, and it will make us better persons and people. Simply, people will feel safe in the society they live in.

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