Few texts have sustained such extensive reference and quotation in Anglo-American politics as JS Mill’s classic.
Mill’s famous ‘Harm Principle’ – that government power may only be
justifiably used to prevent harm to others, not to improve one’s own
good – still provides the ground on which numerous debates around civil
liberties, lifestyle choices, and more recently ‘nudge theory’ are
fought. Moreover, Mill’s rousing defence of the liberty of the press
never ceases to be relevant. Yet it is imperative to understand the aims
and context of On Liberty if Mill’s arguments around press
liberty and the Harm Principle are to be properly understood – as the
endless argumentation about what ‘harm’ means shows.
Attending to the whole of On Liberty, in the spirit of
pursuing knowledge for its own sake, shows these familiar ideas in a new
light. By tackling this canonical work as a whole we gain valuable
insights into Mill’s inspiring defence of personal autonomy, and see
quite how at odds Mill would have been with contemporary political
rhetoric – just as he was in his own time.
Georgios Varouxakis
professor of the history of political thought, Queen Mary University of London; author, Mill on Nationality