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Such is the rhetorical appeal of the idea of liberty that a variety of political philosophiesclaim to honour it. Republicans and Marxists, no less than libertarians and liberals,maintain that they and they alone are the true defenders of freedom. The literature ofcontemporary political theory is thus replete with rival analyses of the meaning ofliberty, and disputes about its measurement, distribution and institutional requirements. Our aim here is to gain some understanding of the meaning and the conditionsof liberty by working through the thicket of contemporary argument, though we mayhave to rest content with a better knowledge of the terrain.

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.

Since its first publication in 1859, few works of political philosophy have provoked such continuous controversy as John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty", a passionate argument on behalf of freedom of self-expression. This classic work is now available in this volume which also includes essays by scholars in a range of fields. The text begins with a biographical essay by David Bromwich and an interpretative essay by George Kateb. Then Jean Bethke Elshtain, Owen Fiss, Judge Richard A. Posner and Jeremy Waldron present commentaries on the pertinence of Mill's thinking to early 21st century debates. They discuss, for example, the uses of authority and tradition, the shifting legal boundaries of free speech and free action, the relation of personal liberty to market individualism, and the tension between the right to live as one pleases and the right to criticize anyone's way of life

Is liberty alive in Britain? Are our freedoms and rights real and effective? Or do we live in a state of virtual liberty, all appearance but little substance?

chapter 1 Introduction -- chapter 2 The liberty of the ancients compared with that of moderns -- chapter 3 The gnoseological roots of liberty and tribalism -- chapter 4 The failure of psychologism and the question of private property -- chapter 5 Mandeville and the Scottish moralists -- The discovery of society as a spontaneous order -- chapter 6 Austrian marginalism -- The limits of knowledge and society as a spontaneous order -- chapter 7 The intellectualistic hubris and the destruction of liberty.