Mill proposed that liberty provided a medium between anarchy and autocracy. The medium (liberty) would ensure people freedoms that they could not recognize at either extreme of the political spectrum. Mill wanted all citizens in society to be granted: freedom of opinion, freedom to plan one's own life, and the freedom to associate with whomever one chose. If a person is afforded all of these rights then they have essentially been contracted the freedom to be an individual.

Individuality, as seen by Mill, is the only way to allow

Mill believes that people within a private sphere with no intervention will achieve the greatest happiness; this allows individuals to effectively pursue their interests. The public sphere is where intervention is possible, but only based on utilitarian grounds. Mill does place limitations on the personal freedom that he proposes. A person's autonomy should not be respected when they prove to be putting others in danger with their actions. It is at this point that the government may intervene. Although this limitation on a person's autonomy is theoretically attractive, it is not realistic. It is to hard to determine what actions society should guard against, the fact is that no act is strictly isolated there is always some sort of ramification. Although Mill specifies that it is only acts that are harmful to society that should become public issues, it is very hard to determine exactly what harm is, since it comes in so many different forms including psychological.

a person to truly self-develop. He is very critical of government intervention in people's affairs. No government structure allows people the necessary freedoms to achieve individuality, including democracy, which he ascertains is not the will of the people but simply the will of the majority of the active governed people. This type of tyranny, tyranny of the majority, is just as evil as any other type of political despotism. The freedoms Mill would grant to people would protect against the tyranny of prevailing opinion. An individual is more capable of making appropriate decisions concerning the actions they take in their life's course, than any government is.

The conviction that all ideas must be included in any sort of decision, instead of just what the majority deems as the correct idea, is a very interesting assertion by Mill. Even if all of mankind minus one person was of the same opinion, mankind would not be justified in silencing that one person, their opinion should be heard. The problem is the practicality of the idea. In democratic societies we have special interest groups and professional lobbyers that voice the ideas and concerns of major groups of people and organizations. The problem is that in such a large society it would be very difficult to consider the ideas of every single solitary person (no matter how eccentric their idea or opinion). To do so would take an inordinate amount of time. This would raise the concern of how long society would need to deliberate on an

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Approximate Word count = 1676
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)