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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... 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- lence questions that might arise from examination of all the arguments he actually puts ...
... wish to uphold. Mill's varied and ambiguous uses of such words as coercion, interest, and harm are tortuously interpreted to make Mill's position compatible with twenti- eth-century conceptions of liberty, and Mill's arguments are ...
... wishes to produce much immediate effect upon the English public, must . . . take pains to conceal that [his idea] is connected with any ulterior views. If his readers or his audience suspected that it was part of a system, they would ...
... wish to thank Mrs. Ruth Muessig for once again mediating between me and the word processor and for displaying superhuman pa- tience and tolerance in face of what must have seemed my endless alter- ations. I also record my gratitude to ...
... wishes . . . is, in effect, the definition adopted by Mill.” As one of the “fathers of liberalism,” Mill wanted “a maximum degree of non-interference compatible with the minimum demands of social life.”4 There is, then, broad agreement ...