Routledge Guides to the Great Books ’ The Routledge Guidebook to Mill s On Liberty JohnStuartMill’sOnLibertyiswidelyregardedasoneofthemostinfluential andstirringpiecesofpoliticalphilosophyeverwritten.Everrelevantinour increasingly surveillance-dominated culture, the essay argues strongly in favourofthemoralrightsofindividuality,includingrightsofprivacyandof freedom of expression. The Routledge Guidebook to Mill’s On Liberty intro- duces the major themes in Mill’s great book and aids the reader in understanding thiskeywork,covering: (cid:1) thecontextofMill’sworkandthebackgroundtohiswriting (cid:1) each separate part of the text in relation to its goals, meanings and impact (cid:1) thereceptionthebook receivedwhen firstpublished (cid:1) therelevance ofMill’sworktomodernphilosophy. With further reading included at the end of each chapter, this is an essentialguidebookforallstudentsofphilosophyandpoliticaltheory,and allthosewishingtogettogripswiththisclassicwork. Jonathan Riley is Professor of Philosophy at the Murphy Institute, Tulane University,USA. THE ROUTLEDGE GUIDES TO THE GREAT BOOKS Series Editor: Anthony Gottlieb TheRoutledgeGuidesto theGreatBooksprovideidealintroductionstotheworkof the most brilliant thinkers of all time, from Aristotle to Marx and Newton to Wollstonecraft. At the core of each Guidebook is a detailed examination of the centralideasandargumentsexpoundedinthegreatbook.Thisisbookendedbyan openingdiscussionofthecontextwithinwhichtheworkwaswrittenandaclosing lookatthelastingsignificanceofthetext.TheRoutledgeGuidestotheGreatBooks therefore provide students everywhere with complete introductions to the most important,influentialandinnovativebooksofalltime. Available: Gramsci’sPrisonNotebooksJohnSchwarzmantel Thoreau’sCivilDisobedienceBobPeppermanTaylor Descartes’MeditationsGaryHatfield Hobbes’LeviathanGlenNewey Galileo’sDialogueMauriceA.Finocchiaro Wittgenstein’sPhilosophicalInvestigationsMarieMcGinn Aristotle’sNicomacheanEthicsGerardJ.Hughes Heidegger’sBeingandTimeStephenMulhall Hegel’sPhenomenologyofSpiritRobertStern Locke’sEssayConcerningHumanUnderstandingE.J.Lowe Plato’sRepublicNickolasPappas Wollstonecraft’sAVindicationoftheRightsofWomanSandrineBergès Forthcoming: DeBeauvoir’sTheSecondSexNancyBauer Paine’sRightsofManFrancesChiu Aquinas’SummaTheologiaeJasonEberl Kierkegaard’sFearandTremblingJohnA.Lippett Machiavelli’sThePrinceJohnScott Gibbon’sHistoryoftheDeclineandFalloftheRomanEmpireDavidWomersley Foucault’sHistoryofSexualityChloeTaylor Fanon’sWretchedoftheEarthJeanKhalfa Jacobs’DeathandLifeofGreatAmericanCitiesPeterLaurence Weber’sProtestantEthicandtheSpiritofCapitalismDavidChalcraft Augustine’sConfessionsCatherineConybeare This page intentionally left blank Routledge Guides to the Great Books The Routledge Guidebook to ’ Mill s On Liberty Jonathan Riley AddAdd AAddAdddAddAddd AddAdd Add FirstpublishedasRoutledgePhilosophyGuidebooktoMillonLiberty,1998 ThiseditionpublishedasTheRoutledgeGuidebooktoMill’sOnLiberty,2015 byRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada byRoutledge 711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©1998,2015JonathanRiley TherightofJonathanRileytobeidentifiedastheauthorofthisworkhasbeen assertedbyhiminaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,Designs andPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,nowknown orhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinany informationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfrom thepublishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered trademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithout intenttoinfringe. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Riley,Jonathan,1955- TheRoutledgeguidebooktoMill’sOnliberty/JonathanRiley. pagescm.--(TheRoutledgeguidestothegreatbooks) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. 1.Mill,JohnStuart,1806-1873.Onliberty.2.Liberty.I.Title. JC585.M63R552015 323.44--dc23 2015001817 ISBN:978-0-415-66539-1(hbk) ISBN:978-0-415-66540-7(pbk) ISBN:978-1-315-72858-2(ebk) TypesetinTimesNewRoman byTaylor&FrancisBooks In memory of Patrick Sutherland Fallis (1948–1981) ‘le feu follet’ This page intentionally left blank C ONTENTS Series editor’s Preface xiv Preface to the first edition xv Preface to this edition xviii PART I GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 1 Mill and the Liberty 3 Mill’s life and work 3 ‘Text-book of a single truth’ 34 Early reaction 36 Current status 41 Suggestions for further reading 45 Notes 47 PART II THE ARGUMENT OF ON LIBERTY 51 2 Introductory (Chapter I, paras 1–16) 53 Stages of liberty (I.1–5) 53 Absence of a general principle (I.6–8) 57