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