1. ‘On Liberty’
Dinah Ward

2. ‘On Liberty’ John Stuart Mill 1859 philosopher political economist
politician

3. John Stuart Mill’s ideas today
James Mill
Childhood
Youth
‘On Liberty’
‘Liberty of expression’
‘Liberty of taste and pursuits’
John Stuart Mill’s ideas today
‘Liberty of expression’ – racism
‘Liberty of taste and pursuits’ - wearing the hijab

4. James Mill
Utilitarianism

5. Utilitarianism Utility: usefulness What is a good action?
Religion?
Principles?
Feelings?
The action with the best outcome

6. Utilitarian government
What is a good action for a government?
Religion?
Principles?
Feelings?
The action with the best outcome
Whatever creates the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people

7. 1806: birth of John Stuart Mill
What is the best way to bring up children?
The method with the best outcome

8. A knowledgeable and rational person
A person whose aim is to improve society

9. John Stuart Mill’s education
Taught to read as soon as he could speak
Started Greek at three
By eight had read six books of Plato

10. John Stuart Mill’s education
summaries: oral, then written
later studied logic, political economy and science

11. John Stuart Mill aged 20 Knowledgeable in many areas
Logical, analytical mind
Competent writer
and speaker
Dedicated
utilitarian

12. John Stuart Mill aged 20
‘a mere reasoning machine’

13. Feelings
Play
Imagination

14. British Romantic poets:
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley
German thinkers:
Goëthe, Schiller

15. John Stuart Mill
‘On Liberty’
1859
Collaborator: Harriet Taylor Mill

16. Key ideas
‘Liberty of expression’
‘Liberty of tastes and pursuits’

17. ‘Liberty of expression’
‘Even if everyone agreed about something except one person – that person should still have the right to voice their opinion’.
‘Robbing someone of that right is robbing the whole human race’.

18. 1) Minority opinion might be true
Opinions change over time
‘Just as we now think that the beliefs of people in the past were wrong and ridiculous, so people in the future will judge our beliefs’.

19. 2) Minority opinion may be partly true
‘It is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied’.
‘In an imperfect state of the human mind, the interests of truth require diversity of opinions’.

20. 3) Even wrong beliefs are useful
Arguments that are never opposed become weak
Arguing against opposing beliefs forces us to be clear about our own

21. 4) Argument is important
‘No one can be a great thinker who does not recognise, that as a thinker it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead’. .
…………………….
4) Argument is important

22. ‘Liberty of tastes and pursuits’
‘Just as it is useful that there should be different opinions, so it is that there should be different experiments of living’
‘Free scope should be given to varieties of character and the worth of different modes of life should be proved practically, when any one thinks fit to try’.

23. ‘Human beings are not like sheep – and even sheep are not indistinguishably alike’

24. ‘The same mode of life is healthy to one, and a crushing burden to another.’

25. ‘Diversity is not an evil, but a good’.

26. Social impact of diversity
‘The amount of eccentricity in a society is proportional to the amount of genius
it contains’.
Social impact of diversity
Society needs genius if it is to develop
Genius is originality in thought and action
Genius is often eccentric
‘Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom’.

27. Social impact of diversity
‘There are many people who consider as an injury to themselves any conduct which they have a distaste for, and resent it as an outrage to their feelings’
Social impact of diversity
‘A person’s taste is as much his own peculiar concern as his opinion or his purse’.

28. Social impact of diversity
. . . even though, as it may appear to the majority, some should be for the worse’
‘It is good that there should be differences, even if not for the better . . .

29. ‘The human faculties of perception, judgement, discriminative feeling, mental activity and even moral preference are exercised only in making a choice’.

30. ‘On Liberty’ summary
People should be allowed to express their opinions
People should be allowed to control their own behaviour

31. Harm to others? People cannot be allowed to harm others
Whatever does not harm others should be allowed

32. ‘On Liberty’ in the modern world
blasphemy laws
pornography laws
political expression
gay rights
alternative lifestyles
varied family structure
women’s rights

33. Liberty in the modern world – freedom of expression
Free expression
for racists?

34. Liberty in the modern world – freedom of expression

35. Liberty in the modern world – freedom of expression

36. ‘Even opinions lose their immunity . . .
. . . when their expression may be a positive instigation to some mischievous act’.

37. Liberty in the modern world – freedom of action

38. Liberty in the modern world – freedom of action
Britain needs 'national debate' about banning Muslim girls from wearing veils in public
Pupils ordered to wear hijab out of school

39. ‘Human beings become a noble and beautiful object of contemplation . . .,
not by wearing down into uniformity all that is individual in themselves ,
but by cultivating individuality and calling it forth’.

40. should we allow people to express racist ideas freely?
should teenage girls be allowed to choose whether they wear the hijab at school?