3.2 John Stuart Mill (1806–1873): Concept of Liberty

The book:On Liberty (1859, with Harriet Taylor's acknowledged share) — liberalism's classic charter; plus Utilitarianism (1863) and Considerations on Representative Government.The harm principle (the one doctrine — quote its core once): "the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others." Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.The three liberties defended:1. Liberty of thought and expression — the most-quoted defence of free speech: opinions may be true (silencing robs mankind), false-but-partial (truth sharpens against challenge), or wholly false (dead dogma without living contestation — truth held without the argument for it decays); the marketplace-of-ideas reasoning (with Mill's own limits: publishing opinion in front of an angry mob — the corn-dealer example — crosses from argument to instigation).2. Liberty of tastes and pursuits — individuality as one of the elements of well-being; experiments in living; the eccentric against the "tyranny of custom."3. Liberty of association.The two enemies: government tyranny — and the tyranny of the majority / tyranny ofprevailing opinion (society's pressure needing no statute to crush difference): the book's modern half.Limits and applications: self-harm is not ground enough (paternalism rejected — sold Poisson in policy debates: drugs, helmets, seatbelts, gambling); offence is not harm (the distinction alive in every…