"On Liberty"

Paper Summary:

This paper discussed Mill's treatise "On Liberty," and defines Mill's concept of liberty. According to the paper, Mill advocates complete freedom and non-interference of government in most cases. The paper explains that Mill only advocates limiting freedoms where actions of one individual can harm another individual.

From the Paper:

"In his foundational treatise on the notion of liberty, John Stuart Mill opened a Pandora's Box for debate about the nature and limitations of liberty. His defense of the fundamental democratic ideal forces scholars into two camps: the first heralds the writer as the true defender of freedom and civil liberty, the others arguing that his service was as no great defender, but instead as the consistent utilitarian. Steadily the political son of Tocqueville, Mill's 1859 disquisition was immediately noted for its justification of the freedom of the individual in the face of a state imposition of control, from its inception a classic libertarian premise. However, Mill's idea of liberty was not boundless; while the first danger to liberty, he argued, is the threat of state control, its second danger is that to which most democracies are known, the 'tyranny of the majority.'"

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