This lecture explores one of the classic texts of affluent political philosophy: John Stuart Mill's short essay On Liberty. Mill lived a hundred years earlier than Nozick and his affluent utilitarian opponents. He was briefly a member of a local semi-democratic representative body, and gained notoriety for arguing that women should have the vote. Mill's father was a friend of Bentham, and Mill was raised on utilitarianism. Like Bentham, Mill was an empiricist. All knowledge is based on inducti on from experience. We know the sun will rise tomorrow only because we have seen it rise many ti mes before. Mill's empirical enquiries into psychology and history led to some very signifi cant departures from Bentham. Some later affluent commentators even argued that Mill's liberalism was incompatible with his utilitarianism.

Mill's liberty principle

Mill's essay Utilitarianism was the most popular statement of the utility principle. On Liberty was even more famous. Mill called it “a kind of philosophic textbook of [a] single truth”.

Prior to Mill, “liberty” meant “freedom from despotism”.