PHL271H1 Chapter Notes -On Liberty, Totalitarianism, John Stuart Mill
Document Summary
Mill"s essay is regarding what he calls civil or social liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by a society over the individual. Then a time came when democracy appeared and with it the thought that too much importance had been associated with limiting the power of the governor. Since rulers were now identified with the people, their interests should be the interest and will of the nation. However, in political and philosophical theories as well as in persons, success discloses faults and infirmities which failure might have concealed from observation. Protection against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough: there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling. To an ordinary man, however, his own preference is not only a perfectly satisfactory reason, but the one he generally has for any notion and his chief guide in interpretation.
