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Discussed and debated from time immemorial, the concept of personal liberty went without codification until the publication of this enduring work which applies an ethical system of utilitarianism to society and the state which to this day remains well known and studied.

At the time it was published in 1859, John Stuart Mill's On Liberty was a radical and controversial work; it argued for the right of individuals to possess freedom from the state in moral and economic matters. Mill declares that "Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign", contrasting this with the "tyranny of the majority." He states that an individual can do anything they like as long as it doesn't harm another - the well-known...

Intro -- Contents -- Editorial Note -- David Bromwich: A Note on the Life and Thought of John Stuart Mill -- George Kateb: A Reading of On Liberty -- On Liberty -- A Note on the Text -- Chapter I: Introductory -- Chapter II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion -- Chapter III: Of Individuality, as One of the Elements of Well-Being -- Chapter IV: Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over the Individual -- Chapter V: Applications -- Rethinking On Liberty -- Owen Fiss: A Freedom Both Personal and Political -- Richard A. Posner: On Liberty: A Revaluation -- Jean Bethke Elshtain: Mill's Liberty and the Problem of Authority -- Jeremy Waldron: Mill as a Critic of Culture and Society -- Bibliography.