John Stuart Mill on Liberty and ControlPrinceton University Press, 2001 M06 18 - 264 pages John Stuart Mill is one of the hallowed figures of the liberal tradition, revered for his defense of liberal principles and expansive personal liberty. By examining Mill's arguments in On Liberty in light of his other writings, however, Joseph Hamburger reveals a Mill very different from the "saint of rationalism" so central to liberal thought. He shows that Mill, far from being an advocate of a maximum degree of liberty, was an advocate of liberty and control--indeed a degree of control ultimately incompatible with liberal ideals. |
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... called “received opin- ion”—that emphasizes Mill's unequivocal advocacy of liberty and his wish to expand it almost without limit. The title of his book encourages this view, and even more, his fine rhetoric and passionate conviction si ...
... called for moral authority, individual re- straint, and social control. His belief in the importance of these things has serious implications for his status as a spokesman for liberalism. Criticisms of recent liberal thought have raised ...
... called “reigning opinions.” This difficulty is all the greater because Mill has become, ironically, in light of his opinions about religion, something of a sacred figure—“the saint of rationalism,” Glad- stone called him. Indeed, alarms ...
... called for one or the other. And knowing about this intention, announced in the mid-1850s, makes it necessary that we at least examine the text of On Liberty, published in 1859, to determine if it reflects what the author intended when ...
... called 'traditionalist': Gray and Smith, ibid., 1–19; and by John Gray, Mill on Liberty: A Defence (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983), 131, n. 17. Revision- ists include Rees, Ryan, Gray, Richard Wollheim, and Fred Berger. Recently ...