On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

Author:John Stuart Mill
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, pdf
Tags: Liberty
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Published: 2017-03-31T19:18:38+00:00

IV Of the Limits to the Authority of Society Over the Individual

What, then, is the right­ful limit to the sov­er­eignty of the in­di­vidual over him­self? Where does the au­thor­ity of so­ci­ety be­gin? How much of hu­man life should be as­signed to in­di­vidu­al­ity, and how much to so­ci­ety?

Each will re­ceive its proper share, if each has that which more par­tic­u­larly con­cerns it. To in­di­vidu­al­ity should be­long the part of life in which it is chiefly the in­di­vidual that is in­ter­ested; to so­ci­ety, the part which chiefly in­terests so­ci­ety.

Though so­ci­ety is not foun­ded on a con­tract, and though no good pur­pose is answered by in­vent­ing a con­tract in or­der to de­duce so­cial ob­lig­a­tions from it, every­one who re­ceives the pro­tec­tion of so­ci­ety owes a re­turn for the be­ne­fit, and the fact of liv­ing in so­ci­ety renders it in­dis­pens­able that each should be bound to ob­serve a cer­tain line of con­duct to­wards the rest. This con­duct con­sists, first, in not in­jur­ing the in­terests of one an­other; or rather cer­tain in­terests which, either by ex­press legal pro­vi­sion or by ta­cit un­der­stand­ing, ought to be con­sidered as rights; and secondly, in each per­son’s bear­ing his share (to be fixed on some equit­able prin­ciple) of the la­bours and sac­ri­fices in­curred for de­fend­ing the so­ci­ety or its mem­bers from in­jury and mo­lesta­tion. These con­di­tions so­ci­ety is jus­ti­fied in en­for­cing, at all costs to those who en­deav­our to with­hold ful­fil­ment. Nor is this all that so­ci­ety may do. The acts of an in­di­vidual may be hurt­ful to oth­ers, or want­ing in due con­sid­er­a­tion for their wel­fare, without go­ing the length of vi­ol­at­ing any of their con­sti­tuted rights. The of­fender may then be justly pun­ished by opin­ion though not by law. As soon as any part of a per­son’s con­duct af­fects pre­ju­di­cially the in­terests of oth­ers, so­ci­ety has jur­is­dic­tion over it, and the ques­tion whether the gen­eral wel­fare will or will not be pro­moted by in­ter­fer­ing with it, be­comes open to dis­cus­sion. But there is no room for en­ter­tain­ing any such ques­tion when a per­son’s con­duct af­fects the in­terests of no per­sons be­sides him­self, or needs not af­fect them un­less they like (all the per­sons con­cerned be­ing of full age, and the or­din­ary amount of un­der­stand­ing). In all such cases there should be per­fect free­dom, legal and so­cial, to do the ac­tion and stand the con­sequences.

It would be a great mis­un­der­stand­ing of this doc­trine, to sup­pose that it is one of selfish in­dif­fer­ence, which pre­tends that hu­man be­ings have no busi­ness with each other’s con­duct in life, and that they should not con­cern them­selves about the well-do­ing or well-be­ing of one an­other, un­less their own in­terest is in­volved. In­stead of any di­minu­tion, there is need of a great in­crease of dis­in­ter­ested ex­er­tion to pro­mote the good of oth­ers. But dis­in­ter­ested be­ne­vol­ence can find other in­stru­ments to per­suade people to their good, than whips and scourges, either of the lit­eral or the meta­phor­ical sort. I am the last per­son to un­der­value the self-re­gard­ing vir­tues; they are only second in im­port­ance, if even second, to the so­cial.

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