Briefly: John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, SCM Press.
© David Mills Daniel 2006
The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this Work
The author and publisher acknowledge material reproduced from John Stuart Mill, On Liberty and Other Essays, ed. J. Gray, 1998, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0192833847. Reprinted by permission of Oxford Universiy Press. All rights reserved.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
0 334 04036 1/978 0 334 04036 1
First published in 2006 by SCM Press
9–17 St Alban’s Place,
London N1 0NX
SCM Press is a division of
SCM-Canterbury Press Ltd
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Bookmarque, Croydon, Surrey
Contents
Suggestions for Further Reading
Detailed Summary of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty
Chapter II Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion
Chapter III Of Individuality, as One of the Elements of Well-Being
Chapter IV Of the Limits to the Authority of Society Over the Individual
Introduction
The SCM Briefly series is designed to enable students and general readers to acquire knowledge and understanding of key texts in philosophy, philosophy of religion, theology and ethics. While the series will be especially helpful to those following university and A-level courses in philosophy, ethics and religious studies, it will in fact be of interest to anyone looking for a short guide to the ideas of a particular philosopher or theologian.
Each book in the series takes a piece of work by one philosopher and provides a summary of the original text, which adheres closely to it, and contains direct quotations from it, thus enabling the reader to follow each development in the philosopher’s argument(s). Throughout the summary, there are page references to the original philosophical writing, so that the reader has ready access to the primary text. In the Introduction to each book, you will find details of the edition of the philosophical work referred to.
In Briefly: Mill’s On Liberty, we refer to John Stuart Mill, On Liberty and Other Essays, edited by John Gray, 1998, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0192833847.
Each Briefly begins with an Introduction, followed by a chapter on the Context in which the work was written. Who was this writer? Why was this book written? With Some Issues to Consider, and some Suggested Further Reading, this Briefly aims to get anyone started in their philosophical investigation. The detailed summary of the philosophical work is followed by a concise chapter-by-chapter overview and an extensive glossary of terms.
Bold type is used in the Detailed Summary and Overview sections to indicate the first occurrence of words and phrases that appear in the Glossary. The Glossary also contains terms used elsewhere in this Briefly guide and other terms that readers may encounter in their study of Mill’s On Liberty.
Context
Who was John Stuart Mill?
John Stuart Mill was born in London in 1806, and was the son of James Mill, the utilitarian philosopher and friend of Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism. The education that Mill received from his father, and which he describes in his Autobiography, was unusually ambitious. He started Greek and Latin when he was a few years old, lacked friends of his own age, and did not take part in sport; and this intense programme may have contributed to the severe depression he suffered when he was about 20. In 1823, Mill joined the East India Company, which at that time governed India, where he worked until the British government took over responsibility for India in 1858. During this time, Mill was developing, and writing about, his views on philosophical and political issues, and working out his own version of utilitarianism. On Liberty (1859), Utilitarianism (1861), Considerations on Representative Government (1861) and The Subjection of Women (1869) have had a major and continuing influence on moral and political philosophy, as well as on thinking about the rights of individuals and minorities, and the relationship between the individual and the state. Mill married Mrs Harriet Taylor, whom he had known for more than 20 years, in 1851, and was Liberal MP for Westminster between 1865 and 1868. He died in France in 1873.
What is On Liberty?
The question that Mill addresses in On Liberty affects people to a much greater extent today than in 1859, when it was published. How much power is society entitled to exercise over the individual? Mill recognized that these questions had assumed greater, not less, significance, as, during the nineteenth century, reform movements and revolutions led to the establishment of more democratic governments. In a non-democratic state, such as the monarchies that had governed most European countries in the eighteenth century, it was clear that rulers and ruled had different interests. Those who opposed such governments sought to replace them with elected ones, chosen by and responsible to the majority of the people, which would look after their interests and thus eliminate conflict between rulers and ruled. Mill, however, thought it naive to think that the arrival of democracy would solve all problems. On the contrary, the rise of elected governments meant that the issue of individual