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J.S. Mill: On Liberty
Texts
- J.S. Mill: ‘On Liberty’ (pp 110 + 17)
- Gray, John and Smith, G.: ‘On Liberty in Focus’, 1991 (pp 165)
- Gray, John and Pelczinski, Zbigniew eds.: Conceptions of Liberty in Political Philosophy’,
- 1984, Chapter on Mill (pp 30)
- Ryan, Alan.: ‘The Philosophy of John Stuart Mill’, (2nd ed.) 1998, chapter 12 (pp 18)
- Ryan, Alan.: ‘JS Mill’, 1974
- Ten, C.: ‘Mill on Liberty’, 1980
- Wolff, Jonathan.: ‘An Introduction to Political Philosophy’ 1996, chapter 4 (pp 32)
Some Broad Themes
Harm Principle – is it satisfactory?
- clear/useful
- morally tenable
Liberty
- is it an ends or a means?
- is it compatible with utility? (and what sort)
- does it modify it?
- does Mill advocate positive or negative freedom?
(Do the same for freedom of speech and action – maybe draw a pros and cons list for them and how they are different)
Questions
Sample
- What place does rationality have in Mill’s theory of Liberty?
- Does Mill offer a satisfactory principle by which to judge whether interference in another person’s actions is justifiable?
- Would people who were free in the way J.S. Mill recommended make good citizens?
Exam
- Either: “[A person] cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so…” Why did Mill think it illegitimate to restrict a person’s liberty on these grounds, and are his reasons convincing?
- Or: Does Mill’s defence of free speech ignore the obvious fact that one person’s speech can cause harm to others? (June 2000)
- Either: For Mill, is Liberty a means to an end?
- Or: Would Mill have prevented the dissemination of racist literature? (June 1999)
- Either: “Whoever succeeds in an overcrowded profession, or in a competitive examination.. reaps benefits from the loss of others, from their wasted exertion and disappointment’. (J.S. Mill On Liberty) Why then is society not justified in preventing successful candidates from causing such harm to others?
- Or: Are Mill’s arguments for individual freedom in On Liberty compatible with his belief in the principle of utility? (June 1998)
- To what extent does J.S. Mill’s On Liberty modify utilitarian principles? (June 1997)
- To what extent is Mill’s theory of individual liberty weakened by a lack of concern for poverty and other social constraints? (June 1996)
- In what ways does Mill think that society benefits from upholding the right to free expression, and what limits does he recommend placing on the exercise of this right? (September 2000)
- “In On Liberty, Mill has failed utterly to reconcile his principle of liberty with that of utility”. Discuss. (September 1999)
- Is Mill’s On Liberty a “charter for eccentrics”? (September 1998)
- Does J.S. Mill’s On Liberty express a negative concept of liberty? (September 1997)
- Why does Mill make a distinction between self-regarding and other-regarding actions? Is it useful? (September 1996)
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