On Liberty
In one of the most influential philosophical works ever writer, John Stuart Mill
explores the risks and responsibilities of liberty. Examining the tyranny that can come
both from government and from the herd-like opinion of the majority, Mill proposes a
freedom to think, unite, and pursue our pleasures as the most important freedoms, as long
as we cause no harm to others.
GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have
transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent,
war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have
enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great
thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped
make us who we are.
John Stuart Mill (1806-73) was educated by his father and through his
influence obtained a clerkship at India House. He formed the Utilitarian Society which met
to read and discuss essays, and in 1825 he edited Bentham's Treatise upon Evidence. In
1826 he suffered an acute mental crisis and found that poetry helped him recover the will
to live, particularly the work of Wordsworth.
Having reconsidered his aims and those of the Benthamite school, he met Harriet Taylor
and she inspired a great deal of his philosophy. They married in 1851. Utilitarianism was
published in 1861 but before that Mill published his System of Logic (1843), Principles of
Political Economy (1848) and On Liberty (1839). His other works include his classic
Autobiography (1873). Mill retired in 1858 and became the independent MP for Westminster
from 1865 to 1868. He spent the rest of his life in France and died in Avignon.
174 pages, Paperback