On Liberty

A detailed Summary of On Liberty

John Stuart Mill, one of the foremost nineteenth-century spokesmen for liberalism, advocated Utilitarianism, the view that we should each act so as to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. He very much stressed the individual rights, calling for more power and freedom for people. In such writings as On Liberty, Mill argues that in the past the dangers had been that monarchs held power at the expense of the common people and the struggle was one of gaining liberty by limiting such governmental power. In chapter four of On Liberty, Mill defends the harm principle, which he brought up in the first chapter and is the whole basis for the book. He raises three objections and responds to them extremely effectively in his opinion. Parts of his responses are extremely good and some parts of are very wrong.

Chapter four is a section of the book in which Mill chooses to use to get more in depth with the harm principle and help people to understand it better. Remembering that the harm principle states that actions can only be punished when they harm others, Mill looks at the fact that people are never fully separated from society, and that their actions can affect others. Mill raises his first objection, which is

Mill shows his third and final objection by saying, "If gambling, or drunkenness, or incontinence, or idleness, or uncleanliness, are as injurious to happiness, and as great a hindrance to improvement, as many or most of the acts prohibited by law, why (it may be asked) should not law, so far as is consistent with practicability and social convenience, endeavor to repress these also?" (Page 79) Doing the things such as Mill describes are wrong and pretty immature, but he comes back with a response that is hard to argue with. He responds in three ways. "If society lets any considerable number of its members grow up mere children, incapable of being acted on by rational consideration of distant motives, society has itself to blame for the consequences." (Page 80) This argument defends it greatly as it is. Society had its chance once to raise people right. Interfering with people in this way also leads bad things such as rebellion, as adults often do when told they are wrong, a!

that self-harm also can mean others are harmed, by stating," I fully admit that the mischief which a person does to himself may seriously affect, both through their sympathies and their interests, those nearly connected with him and, in a minor degree, society at large." (Page 79) His response to this is self-harm only counts as other harm when it violates a distinct and assignable obligation. To some this is a perfect response, because they believe until the person does something to affect them through

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Approximate Word count = 1003
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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