Liberty In John Stuart Mills's On Liberty

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John Stuart Mills wrote his philosophical ideas in On Liberty. The purpose of his work was to explain liberty and its limits in society. He claimed the foundation of liberty existed within the harm principle. The principle had two rules. First, individuals are free to do as they please, but can not harm others. Second, an individual has the freedom to harm themselves. When people follow these rules, society can not interfere with a person's liberty. He continued on to explain the different types of liberty allowed under all circumstances: (1) Liberty of belief and feeling; (2) Liberty to express beliefs and feelings; (3) Liberty of self-regarding actions of any kind; (4) Liberty of consensual other regarding actions of any kind. The first, second, and last type of liberty is self explanatory, but self regarding actions have an issue in terms of location. If a person has the liberty to do as they please in private, they can still do harm to others committing the same action in public. Furthermore, he examined harm in a variety of ways, but found an issue within his principle. According to his philosophy, a gambler can gamble and a …show more content…

Both, gambling and prostitution, are consensual other regarding actions. Two or more parties agree to certain terms and go about their business. There is no harm associated with either of the two actions. Whether it be fornication, or gambling, neither are an obstruction to Mill's philosophy. On the other hand, the casino builder and the pimp is a problem. Both can have consequences causing harm to people. A casino profits off of people's losses. A pimp profits off of people selling their bodies. They encourage harmful consequences in society, but people have the liberty to partake in these actions. Mills was against any encouragement to gamble or fornicate with a prostitute. He didn't think society was allowed to interfere with either, the pimp or the casino

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