On Liberty

America's defense department should take some of the billions spent on the stealth bomber or the B1 and spend it to make Arabic and Farsi translations of this book in the hundreds of thousands. We could pack the bomb bays of a squadron of stealth bombers with the translations and carpet the cities of Muslim countries with this treatise on freedom. This is The Book, folks. You cannot read this little book without it changing your life. It is an extended argument about freedom, about true morality, about freeing your mind, about untrammeling the possibility of peace and prosperity in the world. This is the book that lays out the path for treating other human beings with respect and opening the way toward progress in any and all societies. For the discussion of the "harm to others" principle alone, this book merits the world's attention and praise.Perhaps the most famous aspect of Mill's extended argument about liberty is his discussion of the "tyranny of the majority." His argument grows from the long history of religious persecution suffered throughout Europe that led to book bans, bigotry, and even torture and burning at the stake for people who did not conform to the majority superstition, namely the dominant form of Christianity wherever one lived. Mill lived in a time when even the staid and relatively moderate views of the English Church forced people to conform their lives or face public humiliation and financial ruin, and sometimes lynching. The resulting dynamic was that free thought was thus discouraged and progress thwarted. Mill's point is that in such a psychological milieu, people are not mentally free to seek a better way. They are rather trammeled to superstition and the concomitant tyranny of the majority, the majority being emotionally dependent and mentally ham-strung by religion and religious fears and prejudices.America today is witnessing the truth of this dynamic through the virulent and underhanded tactics of the fundamentalist X-tian political right who seek to thwart medical research and impose a legislated theocracy in parts of the country. The effort to put dark-age arguments about "intelligent design" on a scientific par with evolutionary theory is a perfect and alarming example. Mill's argument in On Liberty was prescient in demonstrating what can happen when people allow religion to influence political life. The brand of literalist religion we see in America has been the bane of societies throughout history and respresents a true pragmatic evil on a scale far worse than any imagined "Satanic" sinfulness that Christians associate with popular and secular humanism. Fundamentalist religion, especially in the forms of Christian and Muslim extremism, is a societal cancer when viewed through the lense of reason and of Mill's enlightened utilitarianism. No society that allows religion to make in-roads to politics can flourish. Proof is in the failed Middle East, where no country can manage to pull its people out of poverty and squalor in spite of sitting on the world's richest oil reserves. Mill's argument in this small book speaks volumes about why Muslim countries are doomed to failure and why the Christian right in America (the blood cousins of Islamic radicals) represent the biggest and most un-American evil in our country's history. If America represents freedom, there can be no room for the "ten commandments" in the county court house.Highly recommended as a must read for everyone.

In many ways, one is tempted to think that there is no such thing as liberalism alive in America today. It would do many well to read the work of the Englishman Mill in order to understand much of what is called both "liberalism" as well as "individual liberty." In addition, one of the growing issues of the contemporary political landscape in America is a polarization which is wholly unnecessary when analysis is applied the current plane of consideration. The reason for this conspicuous lack of reason for polarization is made obviously clear when one reads a work on liberal thought like that of Mill's. For Mill, individual liberty is a question both of social and political proportions, demanding a lack of interference by both government and social pressures. Additionally, he is keen in his analysis of the need for humility when it comes to humanity's apprehension of the Truth, thus necessitating free speech as a vehicle for the continual realization of those parts of the Truth which man so often forgets because of personal bias.However, the analysis is weak insofar as it also denies the need for structures to educate humanity in a fallen world. His criteria for legal and social sanctions does overlook the necessity to draw on tradition to properly shape those in the world (while maintaining individual dignity). While he acknowledges that it would be preposterous to deny the necessity of interrelationships and sharing of experience, Mill remains somewhat weak on the necessity of tradition and community as related to individual liberty. However, on the whole, the work presents a decent overview of the need to acknowledge individual dignity through the liberty of the individual. Indeed, all communal criticisms aside, On Liberty does indeed serve as a corrective against crass traditionalism which propagates itself without true individual consent and embrace. Therefore, even in its weakness, it remains strong as a key text on the primacy of the human individual as the recipient and follower of the Truth. In a day when liberty is shouted by groups who have no interest in talking to each other, such a small text would do well to make all groups realize that our American (and indeed Western) goals aren't that different, that we are united in trying to express human dignity through the individuals.

There is little to say that has not been said plenty of times before. On liberty is great and in the current climate very pertinent. The few dollar paperback is all you can expect for the price; a paper version of a Gutenberg page, which is fine.

Hay muchas palabras juntas. Se hace pesado leerlo así.

I liked the approach of mill. He poses questions and provides him opinions as possible answers. I came away with a good understanding of the general principles of liberty. The devil is, of course,in the detail, and that is what we struggle with today.

知識人の文体を知れるという意味で、英語を勉強するなら一度はこのレベルの著作を読んでみるのは良いことだと思います。ある程度の専門性があるので、知らない単語も多いですが、そこは流して読むか、しっかり読みたいなら調べながら読むのも、また良いでしょう。まぁ結論らしきものから言ってしまえば、「ある個人の権利を積極的に侵害する権利は誰にも保障されていない」ってことだと思います。でも現実は、自分基準の勝手な言いがかりをつけて、他人の権利を平気で侵害するのが、世の常態となっている。ネットなど見れば明らかですね。（もちろん法に基づき個人の権利がある程度制限されるのはいうまでもない。無限の権利も保証されていないから）１８５９年刊行なので、１６０年も前の著作になります。はるか昔のその時代を考えると、ミルの慧眼には驚かされます。個人的に「自由論」に関しては、特に現代人に、内容を広く読まれてほしいと思います。人類は歴史的に、「自由」を獲得するために、多大な犠牲を払いつつ、多数の闘争を重ねてきました。表向きは、それは現代においても変わらないと言えるでしょう。年々改善されるテクノロジーの後押しもあって、それはかつてないレベルで進んでいるようにも見える。しかし現実に起きていることを冷静に見て、どうだろうか。自由のない、束縛された世界へと突き進んでいるように見えるのである。むしろ自ら進んでそうしているようにすら見える。典型的な自由の象徴のように思われているネットで、その現象が顕著に現れる。それは、ある種逆説的で奇妙だが、そこを認識してもっと危機感を持つべきなのではないか。既にある程度、表面化・問題化していることではあるが・どんな些細な事案にも非難の応酬・何らかの瑕疵があった人物への「必要以上に過剰な」批判・つるし上げ・他人の幸せにケチをつけずにはいられない人の声が大きくなる・朝起きてから夜寝るまでの、単なる個人の日常に過ぎない行動が、逐一データとして回収される・どこで何をするときも監視カメラの視界の中・デマ情報が、真実としてあっという間に世界に拡散するなどなど。☆―――――――――――――何年も前からあることではあるが、特に今年目立つのが著名人の自死。世間のイメージと真の自分とのギャップ、更には、ネット上の非難を苦にしたことが原因というケースもあるそう。普通に考えれば、まるで接点のない他人が、ある個人の何十年にも渡る人生や生活を隅々まで理解できるわけもなく、コメントしてることは、たまたまその時に話題になったことに過ぎない。話題にしているネタは、実際のところ、試験で何点取った、入試に受かった落ちた、夕飯が美味い不味い、というレベルと同様の話なのである。人生の様々な出来事の中の、たった一つに過ぎない。それに対して、大勢で寄ってたかって騒ぎ、したり顔であれこれ指図するのが現代人。そのおかしさに気づくだろうか？（指図してる当人も、それほど高尚な人物ではないと思われるのに）これらが積極的に行われているのが現代という時代。日々、自由が奪われている、それが現実。拍車をかける要因には、現代人が、文字や舞台が主な表現手法だった時代とは違い、桁違いのレベルでリアリスティックに描かれる「仮想」に囲まれた生活をしていることもあると思われる。作り話の鑑賞に情熱を注いでいる人が多数いるのが良い例。その為に、現実と虚構の境界を明確に判別できなくなり、他者の痛みや喜びを真に熱量を持って共感できない、自覚している以上に他者と断絶している人が増えていると思われる。☆―――――――――――――ミルの考察は、具体的な疑問点をいくつも挙げて、それらを各々詰めていくところから「自由の真の価値」を評価していきます。ネットもない時代に、彼が持っていた広範な知識、教養の深さは読んでいて印象深いです。対して、彼の時代より、桁違いに簡単に、桁違いに大量の情報を揃えてもらえている現代人は、それを生かしていると言えるのだろうか。単純に暇つぶしの道具にしている人は少なくないと思われる。名著の価値は、その中身だけにあるのではなく、それを読むことによって思考のレベルを上げてくれるところにあると思われます。与えられた情報を弄ぶだけでは物事は改善しません。☆―――――――――――――一見、以前より平和そうに見える現代は、そう見えるがために余計に、かつてないほどの危機に面していると言えるのではないだろうか。「自由の価値」というものを、もっと取り上げて再考する必要性を感じます。結果をもらうだけで考えない姿勢からは、それ以上の成果は生まれません。考える、その取かかりに本書をお勧めします。

This book (or long essay) is a great philosophical underpinning for understanding individual liberty and the individual's responsibility to society. I am embarrassed to admit that I was 75 before I read it--but in my defense let me point to my second book, "The Philosophy of Common Sense," available on Kindle through Amazon. Many of the points made by Mill are made by me. Mill attacked the authoritarian dictates of religion--often disguised as "custom" or "tradition." Also, since my book is written in contemporary English (ok American), it's an easier read....sorry, JS.