On Liberty

On Liberty

The Harm Principle
1. The only acceptable ground for preventing me from doing what I want is if it is potential harmful to others
2. "Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign"
  1. However, this only applies to people who are capable of learning from discussion. it does not include:
    1. Children
    2. Barbarians
    3. People with mental health issues
  2. Coercion towards an individual is only acceptable when an individual poses a threat to others
    1. Is there such a thing as a self-regarding action?
      1. We are not isolated from society and so our actions will always effect others
    2. Mill accounts for physical harm but not mental harm
  3. True freedom means persuing one's own good in one's own way, as long as it does not prevent others from doing so
    1. Freedom of thought and opinion
    2. Freedom of tastes and persuits
    3. The freedom to unite with other consenting individuals for any purpose that does not harm others
3. Mill is explicit in rejecting that offence towards others counts as harm
  1. You do not have to approve of others' lifestyle choices
    1. You are entitled to be disgusted by the way that others live
      1. However, this is not enough to justify any intervention forcing someone to behave differently.
        Muslims may wish to ban the consumption of Pork because it is offends them
        A mark of a civilised society is that it can tolerate diversity
4. Some actions which cause harm should be allowed as they may contribute more to the general welfare of society than preventing it
  1. Economic competition may cause harm to some but should be allowed because overall it benefits society
5. An individual's liberty can be legitimately restricted to prevent a crime
  1. Uncertainty of the situation makes it impossible to know beforehand that he intends to engage in self-regarding conduct as opposed to conduct harmful to others or unintentionally harmful to himself
    1. Poisonous chemicals: the state has the authority to take precautions such as registering the purchasers
  2. Special circumstances transform what would usually be a self-regarding action into a harmful other-regarding one
    1. A drunkard who has previously been convicted of violence while drunk, it would be appropriate to punish this person if he was found to be drunk again
6. Society should enforce contracts that consenting individuals agreed to
  1. If an individual no longer wishes to be part of the contract, society should permit the person to be released, although there should also be a moral obligation from the other person to also do so
    1. Divorce
  2. In the case of voluntary slave contracts, non-enforcement is justified
    1. Any freedom to sell oneself would be self-defeating as by choosing to be a slave one would give up all their liberty
      1. People should not be allowed to give up their basic liberty
        Certain actions effect other peoples' rights to liberty
        The state should be allowed to legislate compulsary education for children, although allowing for different modes of education. To leave children uneducated would be a crime against society and the child
7. Soliciting of self-regarding acts should usually be treated as a self-regarding act
  1. This is not the case when sellers / producers make it their job to publically advertise / encourage self-regarding acts which the majority disapproves
    1. Smoking
    2. Gamling
    3. Taxation of self-regarding conduct with the purpose of disouraging or prohibiting it should not be allowed as it represents a punishment
      1. Alcohol
      2. Since it is not acceptable to punish a vice, it is not acceptable to punish people for them either
Liberty
1. "protection against the tyranny of political rules"
2. People tried to limit leader's power
  1. They gained imunities called 'rights'
  2. Constitutional checks developed
  3. Later, it was not necessary to limit because power became accountable to the people as it reflected their interests and wills
    1. However, people with power sometimes exercise it over those without power
      1. The majority may try to oppress a minority
        The Tyranny of the Majority
        Legal Tyranny
        When laws are imposed to restrict what consenting adults do in private
        Film censorship
        Homosexuality laws
        Smoking ban
        Fox hunting
        Prohibition
        Social Tyranny
        The way social pressures imposed by majority views can prevent some people from carrying out experiments of living, even though there is no law which prohibits them from doing so
        The power of public opinion can be more stifling to individuality than a law might be
        There must be protection against prevailing public opinion
        Tyranny of the majority leads to collective mediocrity
        In America, the whole white population
        In England, the whole middle class
Thought and Discussion
1. The Infallibility Argument
  1. Those who silence others assume their own infallibility
2. The Dead Dogma Argument
  1. If views are not challenged they will be held as dead dogmas and not living truths
3. The Partly True Argument
  1. Received opinion rarely amounts to the whole truth on any topic. Even views which are considered false may contain true elements which might otherwise be lost.
4. The Link With Action Argument
  1. Views which are unchallenged lose their power to stir people into action
Action
1. Necessary for the progression and development
  1. Of society
    1. Genius
      1. Individuality is good because people learn something from non-conformists
        Geniuses can only flourish in individuality
        They bring new things to humanity
        They inject life into what is already there
        People require different atmospheres in order to develop and reach their potentials and a healthy society must make it possible for people to follow more than one pattern
        "Geniuses can only breathe in an atmosphere of freedom"
        Yet even the most original thinkers and artists develop the ideas of others within an inherited position
        James Fitzpatrick Stephen said that "a life made up of danger, vicissitude, and exposure is the sort of life which produces originality"
        Seeing peoples' dissimilarities is key in learning about one's own weaknesses. Diversity also lets us see the potential of combing positive traits of different people
        Europe's diversity of lifestyles and paths makes it more progressive than conformist China
    2. Conformity leads to social stagnation
  2. Of the individual
    1. Encourages one's ability and willingnesss to obey social rules and not harm others
    2. Encourages one's ability to think and choose on the basis of one's own character
    3. People should be trained as children in the accumulated knowledge of human experience but they should have the freedomto interpret that experience as they see fit when they are adults
      1. "Accepting established custom as a guide on how to live requires only an ape-like ability to imitate"
      2. Mill places an emphasis on the process of making choices as only people who make choices are using all of their human faculties
      3. People have argued that Mill's theory of individuality conflicts with the social nature of culture and tradition.
        People should evaluate the culture around them, as the individual's ability to think and feel for themselves has:
        An element of originality
        A good sense of their own character
        A keen sense of morality
        Healthy self-esteem
        Strength of will to act as they choose
        It is a mistake to think that strong will is dangerous or that it makes people less likely to obey the rules
        The problem is not strong desire but a weak conciousness
        The development of the conciousness is part of the development of individuality.
        People can obey rules without individuality
        "But what will be their comparative worth as a human being?"
        Yet we are cultural; born and raised with customs and traditions and these will inevitably effect a part of someone's identity.
        But Mill never denies that custom and tradition can be a part of someone's identity, nor does he say that the development of individuality must involve breaking custom
        We should not think that being within a culture means the same for every individual
        Mill wants people to reflect critically on customs and traditions: we may freely choose to live in a traditional or customary way, because it suits us best
        Muslim girls deciding to wear the Hijab
  3. "Experiments of living"
  4. We must have the freedom to practice our abilities to think and choose for ourselves in order to develop, which is helped by social restraints placed upon people inclinations to be selfies
2. There should be a tolerance of diverse ways of living up to the point where the individual makes himself a "nuisance to other people"
The Authority of Society
1. A social contract
  1. Society and the individual should each receive control over that part of human life that it is particularly interested in
  2. "Everyone who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit"
    1. Individuals must not injure those interests of other people that should be considered rights
    2. Individuals must fairly share the burden of defending society and its members from injury
      1. Jury duty
      2. Voting
      3. Taxes
    3. Individuals may be censured by opinion, but not by law, for harming others whilst not violating their rights
      1. Society has authority over any aspect of human behavior that "affects prejudicially the interest of others"
  3. Mill rejects the idea of a social contract, but since people receive the protection of society, they owe certain conduct in return
2. Paternalism
  1. Paternalism is forbidden because everyone else's interests in or knowledge about a particular person's wellbeing is trifiling compared to the individual's own interests and knowledge
    1. "All errors which he is likely to commit against advice and warning, are far outweighed by the evil of allowing others to constrain him to what they deem is his good"
    2. Prohibition
    3. Banning recreation on the Sabbath
3. It is allowed to point out a fault in another person's behaviour as it is natural that people will find some activities to be distasteful and will therefore judge that action to be inappropraite but he should not be treated with anger or resentment, or seen as an enemy, if he only engages in unpopular activities with himself
  1. Hunting
  2. Pornography
  3. Homosexuality
  4. No human is fully isolated and actions can create bad examples and may diminish community rescources or harm those who depend on a person
    1. The action itself is not punishable but the consequences are
      1. Society has a person's entire childhood to nurture values; if a person fails to accept those values, it is society's own fault.
      2. If an action is harmful then people will see its negative effects and this should be enough of an example to them of why they should not act in such a way
    2. If an individual is unable to pay his debts due to an extravagant lifestyle, Mill says such behavior is subject to punishment because the person has failed to fulfill a duty to his creditors. However, the person cannot be punished for the extravagance itself. This means that if the person has no family or debt, then the Harm Principle would have no reason to curb his excess.
  5. Mill leaves his argument open for critique by basing it on what is 'natural' for humans to do

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