John Stuart Mill Liberty

John Stuart Mill, in his “Introduction,” on Liberty, discusses the shortcomings of modern Liberty. According to Mill, Liberty has lost much of its meaning because men, in society, tend to degrade their Liberty for the sake of some lesser more comfortable thing; which they, unfortunately according to Mill, call Liberty. This form of Liberty, which Mill has identified as an undermined sense of the word, has manifested itself in two distinct ways throughout various periods; the first, was ‘Liberty’ which simply instated a, “governing one,” meant to protect the weak from the strong by establishing its power as the strongest. The second form of degraded Liberty, was when men realized the former sense to be insufficient; so men, in their endless …show more content…
According to Mill Liberty, in its most pure sense, comes down to ultimate freedom; to be limited, conservatively and cautiously, according to one ‘simple’ principle, “That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” According to Mill, Liberty means an unfettered freedom to pursue whatever desire or passion one possess as an individual. This is because, contends Mill, “No one, indeed, acknowledges to himself that his standard of judgment is his own liking; but an opinion on a point of conduct, not supported by reasons, can only count as one person’s preference; and if the reasons, when given, are a mere appeal to a similar preference felt by other people, it is still only many people’s liking instead of one.” Mill asserts his claim that understandings of morality, which then become the basis for laws, are subjective. Mill continues by claiming that, each man holds his own understanding of right and wrong; any imposition by society, or government, which uses the majority’s understanding of morality to legislate on the actions of the rest is in clear violation of Liberty (at least as far as Mill understands it). The only limit to this principle, as is seen above, is that Man’s unbridled …show more content…
What constitutes harming others? Could a man, under Mill’s principle, be compelled to shower if his stench was determined to harm the nostrils of his neighbours? To what extent must proof of harm be supported with evidence? If each man is free to determine his own morality, who is left to determine what is indeed harm? On issues such as abortion the weakness of Mill’s principle becomes clear; to some, those who view a fetus as life, an abortion falls under ‘harming others,’ to those in favor of ‘choice,’ who think life starts at birth, it does not. Mill’s proposed ‘simple principle,’ is far from the very thing it claims to be. In discussing, and attempting to understand the reach of Mill’s principle, one easily becomes confused as to what falls into the principle and what does not. Mill, attributed as one of the fathers of libertarianism, in pursuit of defining true Liberty, has developed a word with no definitive

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