Abstract
Mill’s Liberty Principle aims to protect ‘social’ freedom, which is traditionally understood as negative freedom. I argue that Mill’s conception of social freedom does not comfortably fit even a moralized conception of negative freedom, and that individuality, an ideal fundamental to On Liberty, is a robustly positive type of freedom. This raises the question of whether protecting social freedom involves an egalitarian, progressive (in the contemporary sense) state that ambitiously strives to create the social conditions of individuality. I consider the case for an affirmative answer to that question, then argue that the ideal of individuality itself blocks interventions that some contemporary egalitarian, progressive liberals consider at least consistent with the Liberty Principle. These include autonomy-enhancing paternalism, and outright prohibition of as opposed to time, place, and manner regulation of the expression of some opinions that adversely affect protected minorities. Though not libertarian, the Liberty Principle is not an expression of this type of egalitarian liberalism, as evidenced inter alia by Mill’s emphatic rejection of state control of education, and his categorical case against prohibiting the expression of even the most extreme and insidious opinions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Ralf Bader argues that in such a case you are not unfree, though neither are you free, because to be unfree is to lack something of value, and the flat liberty (e.g.) to steal has no value (2018, p. 71).
References
Anderson, Elizabeth. 2018. Freedom and equality. In The Oxford Handbook of Freedom, ed. David Schmidtz and Carmen Pavel, 90–105. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bader, Ralf. 2018. Moralized Conceptions of Liberty. In The Oxford Handbook of Freedom, 59-75.
Berlin, Isaiah. 1967. Two Concepts of Liberty. In Political Philosophy, ed. Anthony Quinton, 141–152. New York: Oxford University Press.
Brink, David O. 2013. Mill’s Progressive Principles. Oxford: University Press.
Christman, John. 2009. The Politics of Persons. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dworkin, Ronald. 2013. Justice for Hedgehogs. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Gray, John. 2018. The problem of hyper-liberalism. Times Literary Supplement, 26 March 2016.
Green, T. H. 1986. Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation and Other Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hamburger, Joseph. 1999. John Stuart Mill on Liberty and Control. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Hayek, Friedrich. 1960. The Constitution of Liberty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Jacobson, Daniel. 2015. Review of Mill’s Progressive Principles by David O. Brink. Ethics 126 (1): 204–210.
Lovett, Frank. 2018. Non-Domination. In The Oxford Handbook of Freedom, 106–123.
Marcuse, Herbert. 1968. Repressive Tolerance. In A Critique of Pure Tolerance, ed. R. P. Wolff, 81–117. Boston: Beacon Press.
Mill, J. S. 1848a. Letter to Robert Barclay Fox, 19 December 1842. In Collected Works of John Stuart Mill [CW], ed. J. M. Robson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963–1991), XXX vols. https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/165XIII.
Mill, J. S. 1848b. Letter to John Pringle Nichol, 30 November 1848. In CW XIII.
Mill, J. S. 1848c. Principles of Political Economy Part I. In CW II.
Mill, J. S. 1848d. Principles of Political Economy Part II. In CW III.
Mill, J. S. 1859. On Liberty. In CW XVIII.
Mill, J. S. 1861. Utilitarianism. In CW X.
Mill, J. S. 1873a. Early Draft of Autobiography. In CW I.
Mill, J. S. 1873b. Autobiography. In CW I.
Mill, J. S. 1874. Utility of Religion. In CW X.
Miller, Dale E. 2003. Mill’s 'Socialism'. Politics, Philosophy and Economics 2 (2): 213–238.
Nicholson, Peter. 1998. The reception and early reputation of Mill’s political thought. In The Cambridge Companion to Mill, ed. John Skorupski, 464–496. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Okin, Susan Moller. 1989. Justice, Gender, and the Family. New York: Basic Books.
Ryan, Alan. 1998. Mill in a Liberal Landscape. In The Cambridge Companion to Mill, 497—540.
Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 US 205 (1972).
Wolff, R. P. 1969. The Poverty of Liberalism. Boston: Boston University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Westmoreland, R. The Liberty of the Liberty Principle. Res Publica 26, 337–355 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-019-09447-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-019-09447-y