PHIL 120 · Ethics and Political Philosophy — Liberty, the Individual, and the State

Led by John Stuart Mill

The fifth module of the Cambridge Part IA Ethics paper, led by Mill, turns from how to live to how to live together. Mill's On Liberty answers the threat of the tyranny of the majority with the harm principle — society may coerce a person only to prevent harm to others, never for their own good. The module reconstructs his case for free speech and individuality, the limits of the state, and the deep tension between grounding liberty on utility and making it nearly inviolable.

1. Module 5 ○ Open

   Liberty, the Individual, and the State

   Led by John Stuart Mill

   The question

   What may a society rightfully do to its members — and what must it leave to them alone? Mill answers with the harm principle: over conduct that concerns only himself, the individual is sovereign, and society may coerce a person only to prevent harm to others, never for the person's own good and never merely because the majority is offended. The module reconstructs his case for this principle, his powerful argument that even false opinions must be free because the contest of ideas is how we hold truth at all, and his defence of individuality against the deadening weight of custom — then asks the hard questions: where does "harming only oneself" end, and can a thinker who grounds liberty on the general happiness really keep liberty safe from being traded away for that happiness?

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