Discuss individuality and sociality based on John S Mill

Answers

John S Mill – English philosopher a champion of individual liberty, freedom or autonomy.
The central idea in Mill is respect for human beings and their fundamental liberties

Mill’s liberalism accepted freedom as something good, not because it contributed to an ulterior end but because freedom is the proper condition of a responsible human being. Mill believed that to live one’s own life, developing one’s own natural traits and capacities is not just a means to happiness but was a substantive part of happiness.

A good society must therefore permit freedom to flourish by opening up opportunities for free and satisfying ways of life.
Freedom, according to Mill, produces and gives scope to a high moral character. To hear public questions freely discussed, to have moral convictions and to take the responsibility for making them effective are among the ways in which reasonable human beings are produced. The reason for constructing this character is not that it serves a hidden end but that it is intrinsically humane.

Liberty is not only an individual good; it is also a social good. To silence an opinion by force does violence to the person who holds that opinion and also robs the society of the advantage it might have had from a free investigation and criticism of the opinion. In fact these two claims, that of individual right and public utility, are closely connected. For a society in which ideas live or die by a process of free discussion is not only a progressive society but is in truth the kind of society that can produce persons fit to enjoy the
rights of free discussion.

According to Mill, 'all mankind has no right to silence one dissenter.” This affirms his belief in the freedom of judgment, the right to be convinced rather than coerced as an inherent quality of a morally mature personality and that a liberal society is one which acknowledges that right and shapes its institutions in such a way that the right is realized.

A good society should therefore not merely tolerate individual freedom; it must work at promoting these freedoms for its own betterment. Mill therefore argues for tolerance, the value of differences in points of view, the limitation of the amount of agreement that a society might demand and the welcoming of new ideas as a source of discovery/creativity.

John S Mill – English philosopher a champion of individual liberty, freedom or autonomy.
This essay therefore focuses on the relationship between individuality and sociality.

marto answered the question on April 30, 2019 at 13:04

Next: What is the formula of finding the surface area of a cuboid?
Previous: Define Individuality.

View More Critical and Creative Thinking Questions and Answers | Return to Questions Index

Discuss individuality and sociality based on John S Mill

Answers

Exams With Marking Schemes

Related Questions