6.3.5 Harm Principle: Freedom Except to Harm Others (John Stuart Mill)

John Stuart Mill - Context

His contributions to liberalism are significant because they bridge the gap between classical liberalism, which emphasizes minimal government intervention and individual freedom, and modern liberalism, which recognizes the need for some state intervention to ensure social justice and individual well-being.

Mill's liberalism is characterized by a deep commitment to individual liberty, the importance of moral and intellectual development, and the role of government in promoting the greatest happiness while respecting individual rights.

Core Beliefs

• In "On Liberty," Mill focuses on the importance of individual freedom and how this is vital to social progress. As he set out in the Harm Principle:
  • He argues that it's important to have a society where individuals are free.
• All individuals have free will and have responsibility for their own lives. He writes about ideas and truth in "On Liberty". He argued that just because an idea is popular, it is not necessarily true.
• Individuals should discuss ideas and test them through discussion to avoid blind acceptance. Ideas are tested by playing devil's advocate.
• He believed that established beliefs should be challenged and shouldn't be accepted just because they are popular.
• In "On Liberty," he states that "the only way a society will benefit the individual is to advance freedom."
• His political ideas are often said to resemble "transitional liberalism" and "modern-day conservatism", as they provide a varied bridge between modern and classical liberalism.
• His other major works include "The Subjection of Women" (1869) and utilitarianism.

Harm Principle

• Individuals should be free to do anything except harm other individuals.
• The only acceptable intervention in an individual's liberty is the limiting of their freedom to prevent harm to another individual while allowing the state to punish those who use their liberty to infringe on the liberty of others.
• Individuals should not be able to undertake actions that limit another person's liberty.

Individuals are free - "A person's plan of life for him has no need of any objective validation, as long as they are being rational."

• Society must take steps to ensure that pain is satisfied. He adopts the greatest happiness principle by his test for the greatest happiness for the greatest number, as suggested by Jeremy Bentham.
• Any government or law should be "grounded on the permanent interests of man as a progressive being."

Freedom of Thought and Expression

• This emphasis on free speech is closely tied to Mill's belief in the importance of intellectual and moral development, which he sees as essential for individual and societal progress.

Utilitarianism and the Greatest Happiness Principle

• Utilitarian Ethics:

Utilitarianism - "Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness."

• Mill was a proponent of utilitarianism, a moral theory originally developed by Jeremy Bentham. Utilitarianism holds that actions are right if they promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Mill refined this theory by introducing a qualitative distinction between higher and lower pleasures, arguing that intellectual and moral pleasures are superior to purely physical ones.
• Mill's version of utilitarianism is often described as more sophisticated than Bentham's because it considers the quality of happiness, not just the quantity. This refinement allows Mill to reconcile his commitment to individual liberty with the utilitarian goal of maximizing overall well-being.