John Stuart Mill, an employee for the…
1859 CE
On Liberty, a philosophical work published in 1859 and originally intended as a short essay, applies Mill's ethical system of utilitarianism to society and the state.
Influenced by Jeremy Bentham and Mill's father James Mill, Mill attempts to establish standards for the relationship between authority and liberty.
He emphasizes the importance of individuality, which he conceives as a prerequisite to the higher pleasures—the summum bonum of utilitarianism.
Furthermore, Mill criticizes the errors of past attempts to defend individuality where, for example, democratic ideals resulted in the "tyranny of the majority".
Among the standards established in this work are Mill's three basic liberties of individuals, his three legitimate objections to government intervention, and his two maxims regarding the relationship of the individual to society.
On Liberty is a greatly influential and well received work, although it does not go without criticism.
Some attack it for its apparent discontinuity with Utilitarianism, while others criticize its vagueness.
The ideas presented in On Liberty will remain the basis of much liberal political thought.
It will remain in print continuously since its initial publication.
To this day, a copy of On Liberty is passed to the president of the British Liberal Democrats as a symbol of office.
Mill's marriage to his wife Harriet Taylor Mill greatly influenced the concepts in On Liberty, which was largely finished prior to her death, and published shortly after she died.
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