On Liberty

Contents

1. Dedication 1 min 4

   An epigraph from Wilhelm von Humboldt on “human development in its richest diversity” announces the book’s guiding principle. Mill dedicates the volume to his late wife, Harriet Taylor Mill, as the inspirer and in part the author of his best writings, and says it belongs as much to her as to him, though her death prevented its final revision.

2. I Introductory 37 min 21

   Mill defines his subject as civil liberty: the limits of society’s power over the individual. The old struggle against rulers gave way to elective government, but popular rule brings a “tyranny of the majority”, exercised through opinion and custom as well as law. Against moral codes built on preference, class interest and custom, he asserts one principle: society may coerce an adult only to prevent harm to others, never for his own good. The principle, grounded in utility, does not apply to children or “backward” societies. It protects thought and expression, tastes and pursuits, and association. He begins with liberty of thought.

3. II Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion 1 h 43 min 30

   Mill defends complete freedom of opinion and discussion. Silencing an opinion assumes infallibility, as the condemnations of Socrates and Jesus and Marcus Aurelius’s persecution of Christians show; persecution often succeeds, and in England legal penalties and social stigma still silence unbelievers. Even true opinions, if unchallenged, decay into “dead dogma”, as the ordinary Christian’s relation to the gospel shows. Most often rival opinions each hold part of the truth, so dissent supplies what received opinion lacks; Christian ethics itself is incomplete. He sums up four grounds, and leaves the manner of controversy to opinion rather than law.

4. III Of Individuality, as One of the Elements of Well-Being 51 min 18

   Mill extends the case for free opinion to free action in matters that concern only oneself. Drawing on Wilhelm von Humboldt, he argues that individuality, the development of a person’s own powers through choice, is a central part of well-being, and that conformity to custom leaves the faculties unused. Strong desires are energy, not vice. Original people benefit everyone, but modern society, ruled by the “collective mediocrity” of public opinion, makes eccentricity a reproach. The “despotism of custom” has made the East stationary; China is a warning. Europe progressed through diversity, which railways, schooling, commerce and democracy are now wearing away.

5. IV Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over the Individual 51 min 15

   Where does society’s authority over the individual end? Each person owes others respect for their rights and a share of the common burdens; conduct that harms others may be punished by law or opinion. Conduct that affects only oneself may bring disapproval and avoidance, but not deliberate punishment. Mill answers the objection that no one is truly isolated: only definite damage to others counts. His examples of the public turning its tastes into moral law: Muslim bans on pork, Spanish intolerance, Puritan hostility to amusements, union hostility to piecework, the Maine Law, Sabbatarian legislation, and calls to suppress the Mormons.

6. V Applications 1 h 1 min 23

   Mill applies his two maxims to cases. Competition and free trade fall under social rather than individual liberty. The state may label poisons and keep registers, but not ban them; it may tax drink for revenue but not to suppress it. Selling oneself into slavery is void, and the state should check the power people hold over others, especially in the family. Parents must educate their children, as tested by public examinations, but the state should not run the schools. Even where liberty is not at stake, government should be limited, since a bureaucracy that absorbs a nation’s ability enslaves rulers and ruled alike.