Work · Mill
On Liberty
1859 · Five chapters
The one principle: power may be used over a person against their will only to prevent harm to others.
1859
Published
5
Chapters
The harm principle
Its one rule
Where society’s power stops
The whole book turns on one line. Power may be exercised over a member of a civilized community against his will only to prevent harm to others; his own good is never a sufficient warrant. Draw that boundary and free speech, individuality, and the limits of the state all follow.
The shape of the argument
Ch. 1 — Introductory
The real modern danger is not the tyrant but the tyranny of the majority: social pressure that crushes the individual more thoroughly than any law.
Ch. 2 — Liberty of Thought and Discussion
The four-ground case for free speech: silence no opinion, because it may be true, may hold part of the truth, must be contested to stay alive, and must be understood to be really held.
Ch. 3 — Of Individuality
Individuality as an element of well-being: a person who lets the world choose his plan of life needs only the ape-like faculty of imitation.
Ch. 4 — Limits of Society’s Authority
The harm principle applied: where conduct is self-regarding the individual is sovereign; only other-regarding harm licenses interference.
Ch. 5 — Applications
The hard cases (poisons, the unsafe bridge, incitement, the sale of freedom into slavery) that test exactly where the line falls.
The cast
Mill — writes the century’s defining defense of individual freedom against both state and crowd
Harriet Taylor — the dedicatee, whom Mill credits as a genuine joint author of the book
The harm principle — the one criterion: only preventing harm to others can justify coercion
The tyranny of the majority — the new threat: not law but custom and opinion enforcing conformity
The famous bits
The harm principleCh. 1
The sole end for which mankind is warranted in interfering with the liberty of any of their number is self-protection.
The tyranny of the majorityCh. 1
Social tyranny is more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since it leaves fewer means of escape.
The four grounds for free speechCh. 2
Even one dissenter must be heard, because the silenced opinion may be true, or part-true, or the only thing keeping the truth alive.
Knowing only your own sideCh. 2
He who knows only his own side of the case knows little even of that.
IndividualityCh. 3
A person whose desires and impulses are his own has a character; one who lets the world choose for him has none.