This week Aaron Ross Powell, Trevor Burrus, John Samples, and Matthew Feeney discuss 19th century philosopher John Stuart Mill’s idea of “civil liberty.”

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was a foundational utilitarian philosopher, as well as one of the foremost thinkers in the classical liberal tradition.

This week we're focusing on how Mill thinks of liberty in relation to others and to the state, how utilitarianism influenced his thinking, and Mill’s defense of freedom of thought and free speech, which was quite radical for his time.

This episode is part one of a series that will be continued at a later date.

Show Notes and Further Reading

The Liberty Fund’s Library of Economics and Liberty has the full text of On Liberty available for free:
http://www.econlib.org/library/Mill/mlLbty1.html

When discussing Mill’s views about tolerating divergent opinion, Aaron mentions this previous Free Thoughts podcast with Andrew Jason Cohen on toleration:
http://www.libertarianism.org/media/free-thoughts/toleration

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