JOHN STUART MILL-As Regard Liberty, Mill Was Concerned With Its Maximization But Through

JOHN STUART MILL-As regard liberty, Mill was concerned with its maximization but through
social control. His famous work 'On Liberty' as stated by him, does not deal with philosophy,
but with "Civil or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of power. Which can be legitimately
exercised by society over the individual". 2In continuance of his object to control the individual
by the society, Mill enunciated one principle, "that the sole end for which mankind are
warranted individually or collectively in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their
number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised
over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others" On
Liberty3 "The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that
which concerns others".4 Individual is permitted absolute liberty which concerns him only. And
adherence to such principle leads to an ideal social life creating a climate for the maximisation
of liberty.
As stated above Fundamental Rights are restriction or limitation upon State action. In this
sense Freedom/Liberty, which are basic to the existence of a human beings, are freedom from
interference by the State. It demands an exclusive space for the individual away from the State
regulation. It is a freedom to do as one like, of course that is not absolute in nature. This
imposes a negative obligation on the State to not to interfere with the fundamental rights. This
is notion of negative freedom as explained by Sir Isaih Berlin in his two concepts of
liberty()1958).He said, " but equally it is assumed /especially by such libertarians as Locke and
Mill in England , and constant and Tocqeville in France, that there ought to exist a certain
minimum area of personal freedom which must on no account be violated, for if it is
overstepped, the individual will find himself in an area too narrow for even that minimum
development of his natural faculties which alone makes it possible to pursue even to conceive,
the various ends which men hold good or right or sacred".1... liberty in this sense means liberty
from: absence of interference beyond the shifting but always recognizable frontier.
Significance of Fundamental Rights and their proper place in the Indian Constitution- After
dealing with the nature of fundamental rights we come to know that their significance and
importance in the Constitution is so vast in the sense that they are intended to be permanent
and not being touchable by way of Amendment under Article 368. Therefore, keeping in mind
in subject matter of our study i.e. Amendment under Article 368, out sole endeavour is to find
out whether these rights or their significance warrant any limitation on the powers of
Amendment under Article 368. The chapter on Fundamental Rights represents mainly an
ideology of individualism propounded by Bentham and preached by T. S. Mill and a host of
other philosophers. The idea of individual liberty and freedom is significant because it "permits
the full development of the personality of every citizen in the best way he can achieve
it.'''^^First, Mill appears to believe India unprepared for any sort of representative system of
government, which he believed would help in voicing native concerns. This echoes some of his
later works which stressed the individual development as a pre-condition for the granting
of suffrage. Having said that, are we then to assume that the Indian Mutiny had made an
indelible imprint on Mill's psyche or rather that other agents of socialisation were responsible
for this idea?
Mill further argued that truth is found through the “collision of adverse opinions.” He wrote,
“He who knows only his side of the case, knows little of that.” When people listen only to one
viewpoint, he explained, “errors harden into prejudices, and truth itself ceases to have the
effect of truth, by being exaggerated into falsehood.”
Mill recognized that individual liberty needed limits or else harm to others may result. He gave
the example of an “excited mob” outside the house of a grain dealer, shouting that he was
starving the poor. In such circumstances, Mill agreed, the police were justified in arresting
those whose angry words might easily inflame violence. He also said that the government had
no business censoring those same words published in a newspaper article.-Mill argued that “an
atmosphere of freedom” was necessary to assure all people the opportunity to develop their
individuality. He condemned British society of his day for its suffocating conformity. He
applauded original thinkers, oddballs, geniuses, and nonconformists who experimented with
different lifestyles, thus preventing human life from becoming a “stagnant pool.”-Mill stated
that government should be limited to providing the conditions necessary for people to achieve
their individuality. He cited examples of when government was wrong in trying to stamp out
certain human behavior and lifestyles. One example was prohibiting gambling. Another was
persecuting the Mormon religion.-On the other hand, he argued that government was right to
prohibit people from getting married if they could not support their children. To have a child,
he wrote, “without a fair prospect of being able, not only to provide food for its body, but
instruction for its mind, is a moral crime, both against the unfortunate offspring and against
society.”-Mill’s “On Liberty” drew criticism. Some accused him of encouraging anarchy,
immorality, and godlessness. Other critics doubted that he had adequately defined “harm” and
questioned his assumption that people actually wanted to pursue self-development. Mill
himself remarked that “On Liberty” was “likely to survive longer than anything else that I have
written.” He was right. It is his most famous work and has never gone out of print.

JOHN STUART MILL-As Regard Liberty, Mill Was Concerned With Its Maximization But Through

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

JOHN STUART MILL-As Regard Liberty, Mill Was Concerned With Its Maximization But Through

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

JOHN STUART MILL-As Regard Liberty, Mill Was Concerned With Its Maximization But Through

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

JOHN STUART MILL-As regard liberty, Mill was concerned with its maximization but through

You might also like