Books with author John Stuart Mill

Discussed and debated from time immemorial, the concept of personal liberty went without codification until the 1859 publication of On Liberty. John Stuart Mill's complete and resolute dedication to the cause of freedom inspired this treatise, an enduring work through which the concept remains well known and studied.The British economist, philosopher, and ethical theorist's argument does not focus on "the so-called Liberty of the Will…but Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual." Mill asks and answers provocative questions relating to the boundaries of social authority and individual sovereignty. In powerful and persuasive prose, he declares that there is "one very simple principle" regarding the use of coercion in society — one may only coerce others either to defend oneself or to defend others from harm.The new edition offers students of political science and philosophy, in an inexpensive volume, one of the most influential studies on the nature of individual liberty and its role in a democratic society.

Liberty was published in 1859, when the nineteenth century was half over, but in its general spirit and in some of its special tendencies the little tract belongs rather to the standpoint of the eighteenth century than to that which saw its birth. In many of his speculations John Stuart Mill forms a sort of connecting link between the doctrines of the earlier English empirical school and those which we associate with the name of Mr. Herbert Spencer. In his Logic, for instance, he represents an advance on the theories of Hume, and yet does not see how profoundly the victories of Science modify the conclusions of the earlier thinker. Similarly, in his Political Economy, he desires to improve and to enlarge upon Ricardo, and yet does not advance so far as the modifications of political economy by Sociology, indicated by some later—and especially German—speculations on the subject. In the tract on Liberty, Mill is advocating the rights of the individual as against Society at the very opening of an era that was rapidly coming to the conclusion that the individual had no absolute rights against Society. - Taken from "On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill

In "On Liberty," John Stuart Mill begins by writing, "The subject of this essay is not the so-called 'liberty of the will', so unfortunately opposed to the misnamed doctrine of philosophical necessity; but civil, or social liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual." It is this concept that is at the heart of this work. John Stuart Mill eloquently ponders the question of where the line should be drawn between the freedom of individuals and the authority of the state. As he puts it, "The struggle between liberty and authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar..."

In "On Liberty," John Stuart Mill begins by writing, "The subject of this essay is not the so-called 'liberty of the will', so unfortunately opposed to the misnamed doctrine of philosophical necessity; but civil, or social liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual." It is this concept that is at the heart of this work. John Stuart Mill eloquently ponders the question of where the line should be drawn between the freedom of individuals and the authority of the state. As he puts it, "The struggle between liberty and authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar..."

In "On Liberty," John Stuart Mill begins by writing, "The subject of this essay is not the so-called 'liberty of the will', so unfortunately opposed to the misnamed doctrine of philosophical necessity; but civil, or social liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual." It is this concept that is at the heart of this work. John Stuart Mill eloquently ponders the question of where the line should be drawn between the freedom of individuals and the authority of the state. As he puts it, "The struggle between liberty and authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar..."