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On Liberty (1859)
Mill described On Liberty as being about “the importance, to man and society, of a large variety in types of character, and of giving full freedom to human nature to expand itself in innumerable and conflicting directions.” This celebration of individuality and spurning for conformity runs throughout the essay. Mill rejects attempts to coerce people’s opinions and behavior—saying that society should treat diversity with respect while arguing that the only time coercion is acceptable is when an individual’s behavior harms other people.
The key concept of On Liberty is that liberty is essential to ensure progress, for both the individual person and society—particularly when society becomes more important than the state. This ideal is attained in a representative democracy when the opposition between the rulers and the ruled disappears, because rulers only represent the interests of the ruled. Mill suggests that a democracy makes the liberty of the individual possible, but it does not guarantee it.
Utiliatarianism (1861)
Mill, whose influence on thought in the 19th century was vast, wrote Utilitarianism to provide support for the value of utilitarianism as a moral theory, and to respond to misconceptions about it. Mill defines utilitarianism as a theory based on the principle that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” The theory of utilitarianism has been criticized for many reasons. Critics hold that it does not provide adequate protection for individual rights, that not everything can be measured by the same standard, and that happiness is more complex than reflected by the theory. Mill's essay represents his attempt to respond to these criticisms, and thereby to provide a more complex and nuanced moral theory.
