Nonfiction · 1859
On Liberty
“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” John Stuart Mill’s essay, published in 1859 and dedicated to his late wife Harriet Taylor Mill, is the classic statement of the liberal case for freedom of thought, speech and conduct, and of the limits of society’s authority over the individual.
The volume opens directly on Mill’s own dedication and essay, complete in its five chapters — introductory, on liberty of thought and discussion, on individuality, on the limits of society’s authority over the individual, and on the applications of the principle. A later editor’s introduction, W. L. Courtney’s addition to the Walter Scott edition of 1901, is not included.
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Part of Political Thought.
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About the author
1806–1873 · Victorian
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) was educated at home by his father, the philosopher James Mill, in a famously rigorous programme, and worked for the East India Company for thirty-five years while writing the System of Logic (1843), Principles of Political Economy (1848), On Liberty (1859), Utilitarianism (1861) and The Subjection of Women (1869). His collaborator in much of this was Harriet Taylor, whom he married in 1851. He sat in Parliament from 1865 to 1868 and died at Avignon.
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