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On Liberty

‘One very simple principle’

Gerard Casey breaks down Mill’s core principle.

If a classic is a book that everybody thinks they’ve read but few actually have, then John Stuart Mill’s essay On Liberty is definitely a classic. Over the years a consensus has emerged that the core of On Liberty is this “one very simple principle”:

“[T]he sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is self-protection … the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others … The only part of the conduct of anyone for which he is amenable to society is that which concerns others. In the part that merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.” (On Liberty, pp.

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