Liberty by John Stuart Mills.

¶ … Liberty by John Stuart Mills. The writer argues in Mills favor that only by hearing all opinions with complete freedom can the truth be established. There was one source used to complete this paper.

John Stuart Mills was one of the most staunch supporters of personal liberty and freedom in history. He spent his adult life arguing for its cause and writing his beliefs about the topic. When it comes to freedoms Mills had strong ideas about liberty and what it meant. Though he spent many words explaining his views to the world it all revolved around one truth. Mills believed to have true liberty, dissent has to be allowed.

According to Mills the most important aspect of liberty has to do with freedom of speech or opinions. As he says in his writing on the topic of Liberty the only way to know, really and truly known, deep within one's heart that their opinion is right is to be able to compare it with the opposite opinion.

The opposite opinion cannot be paraphrased by someone who does not really believe it for it will lose its value and perhaps some of its more valid points through this method. According to Mills, the true way to measure one's opinion is to hear the other side argued by those who passionately believe in its value and worth.

This creates the backdrop for liberty as it provides everybody in society with the opportunity to test and measure their own thoughts (Mills).

This has held true since the beginning of time according to Mills.

An example of what he believes when it comes to liberty would be a person's view on crime. If one person believed that drugs should be legalized but had not heard any counter arguments about that topic, how would one know that their belief was based in fact, and truth? It would be important for that person to be able to weigh his or her beliefs against those who think in opposite ways before one could determine the truth or rightness of their opinion.

Liberty can only truly be reached according to Mills by allowing all sides to passionately hold onto their beliefs and to speak them out loud to anyone they wish to discuss them with. It is only then that true liberty has taken place as it has provided a forum and a backdrop for examination of all sides in an issue and given all parties the chance to determine if they still believe in what they stood for (Mills).

According to the essay Mills also does not believe society or the government has any actual or absolute control over an individual. In the essay he addresses his feelings about the government by stating that a good government really has no more power than a poor government over the people that it serves.

Mills refers to civil liberties and social liberties with his essay and causes the reader to examine the meaning of liberty through his use of examples.

According to Mills there is only one justifiable reason that liberty should be limited an that is for the prevention of harm. He is quick to point out however, that moral harm is not harm in the sense of liberty oppression (Mills).

Moral wrongs may be offensive to some, as is the case with Ku Klux Klan however it is not something that is going to do physical or life threatening harm to others. In fact,. The wearing of robes underscores his belief that opposing opinions should be expressed openly so that others can measure their own thoughts and opinions against them to determine if their opinions still hold to be true and right or if they are decidedly wrong.