Free Republic

Libertarian philosopher John Stuart Mill died 150 years ago on the 7th May, 1873. He knew that freedom of speech underpins democratic society because it involves both speaking and listening. Mill wrote .............. “He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion ..... He must be able...

The most famous fiasco in literary history occurred when Thomas Carlyle gave John Stuart Mill the first part of his great work The French Revolution to critique. Mill’s maid thought the manuscript was wastepaper and threw it into the fire. The loss was total. Carlyle had no copy. Carlyle and his formidable wife, Jane, were newly arrived in London from Scotland, with scant savings in their purse. The loss of the book, and its anticipated revenue, threatened them with ruin. Carlyle (who had just been introduced to high society, and was keeping company with grandees such as Mill and Wordsworth)...

At the interval of about a generation from the passing of the first Reform Act, by a sort of universal consent the Legislature is about to employ itself in enacting a second. This determination has been adopted in circumstances strikingly contrasted with those by which it is usual for constitutional changes to be ushered in, and, at least immediately, brought about. The change to which all are looking forward, has not been pressed upon the ruling powers by impetuous and formidable demonstrations of public sentiment, nor preceded by signs of wide-spread discontent with the working of the existing political institutions....

Great Britain's decision to ban Michael Savage because of his "extreme views" marks a dark day in the history of free speech. The shame should be particularly severe in a nation that gave birth to John Stuart Mill, the 19th century political philosopher whose writings so strongly advanced the cause of open dialogue. Mill argued in his pivotal essay "On Liberty" that intolerance to hear opposing views amounts to an assertion that the politically correct view is infallible. Doubting that any human view could be without error, Mill fought hard to convince readers of the importance of encouraging the expression...

"The right to be left alone," said Justice William O. Douglas, "is indeed the beginning of all freedom." And regarding the authority of society over the freedom of the individual, where should the line be drawn? What's the right balance between individual independence and collective social control? John Stuart Mill, arguably the most influential 19th-century British political writer, asked those questions in his most popular essay, On Liberty, published in 1859. Mill's position is that "the individual is not accountable to society for his actions in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself." Singer Billy...

JOHN STUART MILL would be shaking his bald head with a combination of dismay and bewilderment. The author of On Liberty, who was born 200 years ago today, would be as appalled by the current assault on civil liberties as by the shocking failure of its critics to find a vocabulary with which to rally mass opposition. Now, more than ever, we need to reacquaint ourselves with the wisdom of the last great English polymath. Mill’s upbringing at the hands of a bullying parent gave him an early distaste for tyranny. His father set out with the explicit aim of...

The idea of liberty never seemed especially scary to me. That was what we were all about as Americans – people fleeing despotism. "Where liberty dwells, there is my country," declared Benjamin Franklin. I write for Liberty magazine. The Statue of Liberty is the American symbol, a salute to freedom, not to caution or obedience. I was surprised, consequently, to see John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty," a classic defense of freedom and individual sovereignty, getting an honorable mention on a list published by Human Events of the "Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries." Human Events, "The...

John Stuart Mill was a utilitarian philosopher in the 19th century.  While his most significant contributions to humanity were in the fields of philosophy and economics, his most well-known quote is one cited, correctly and incorrectly, by many in the military and many who have an interest in military affairs.  I have seen so many different versions of that quote that I decided to do some research into the correct quote, a few months ago, before we deployed to Iraq.  I found it on my computer today.  Here is the actual quote and the source:“But war, in a good cause,...