Mill On Liberty

John Stuart Mill (J. S. Mill) is considered to be influential by many scholars since in his work, and especially in On Liberty, he frequently reinforces the importance of individual civil liberties and the importance of them not being interfered with by others or by the state. Mill says that by being free from these restraints, people can then pursue their own happiness and common good, allowing for the promotion of overall human development. Mill considers freedom as a concept which includes the practices of self-development and individual self-determination, using the formation of basic liberties as the tool to both achieve and limit this concept.

Defining Freedom

Mill’s conception of freedom in On Liberty:

The only freedom which deserves

For Pettit, relationships which exist where one party holds undue authoritative power over another (in this case, the coloniser over the colonised), are not to be permitted. The grounds for this is that even though the coloniser might be enforcing their views ‘for the good of society’, and thus, are benevolent in a way, a change in attitude for the coloniser could occur at any time. This unbalanced power structure would then effectively create a dominating relationship between the coloniser and the colonised community — a situation of unfreedom under Pettit’s theory. It is for this reason why I would say that freedom as Pettit states it is the best choice in this instance (and Mill’s more inadequate), as Pettit’s theory would rule out these types of situations where an authoritarian rule can occur over another

I believe Mill includes them not because they each hold inherent value, but that, when combined, they all help to achieve his idea of what freedom is for: namely the ability to pursue our own good, through the creation of a free society. It is when society recognises all of these values that individuals can fully experience freedom. Mill divides these basic liberties into three broad categories, providing examples of each:

Liberties that discuss autonomy and individual sovereignty: liberty of conscience; liberty of thought and feeling; freedom of opinion and sentiment on all subjects. These liberties give us the ability to be our own sovereign, where none other than ourselves can hold power of interference over us (with the exception of the ‘harm principle’, which will later be discussed);

Liberties that help provide the mechanisms of self-determination: liberty of tastes and pursuits so that individuals can make life decisions in agreement with their inherent personal values;

Liberties involving groups of individuals: freedom of association and freedom to unify so that people can share their opinions with each other collectively; these are an extension of the first set of