On Liberty: The Importance of Individual Freedom

 In his essay “On Liberty”,  J.S Mill, argues people should be allowed to freely choose and do what they want to do in society. He starts with the unchanging theme of authority and rights, how might can overpower in democracies as well. Although the popular notion considered one of the civilised form of governments, Mill cautions against the concept of the tyranny of the majority in which the opinions of the majority become overpowering over the minorities and individuality. This tyranny he says is not only of laws but of opinion and courtesy which makes the later a more pervasive and potent form of tyranny.

Mill has one main idea which is the harm principle. He claims to people should be permitted to do as they please and go as they please as long as they are not inflicting hurt on others. To Mill, this is the only reason that liberty should be limited. Only such an intervention is legitimate and healthy for individuals and the community at large; anything beyond this intervention is oppressive.

Moreover, he says. it's most important to have freedom of thought and speech as should be seen from the above observation. He writes that those ideas that people do not like and may well turn out to be false, must not be suppressed because they provide something peculiarly helpful to existing opinion and to investigation of truth. In the same sense, Mill argues that every individual must be free to express his/her opinion, thinking that only through free expression does human progress come about, or that only through this does the liberalisation of civil liberties is possible. 

In addition, he also criticises the society for putting pressure to conform to specific standards. According to Mill, individualism is important for people’s happiness and for social progress. He believes that dissent and differences of opinions are characteristics of development and are critical to the capacity and innovation of any community. This way in turn of helping people find out who they really are and what they might be capable of doing is advantageous to society for everyone.

By this, Mill presents a very good point of viewing individual liberties with protection from both government authority as well as social pressure. His vision prioritises freedom, difference of opinion as characteristics that allow progress and innovation to take root in a society.