On Liberty and Other Essays

This volume, containing Mill's "On Liberty", "Utilitarianism" and "The Subjection of Women", draws together the basic ideas of liberalism: "On Liberty" is a philosophical work by the English philosopher John Stuart Mill, originally intended as a short essay. The work, published in 1859, applies Mill’s ethical system of utilitarianism to society and the state. Mill attempts to establish standards for the relationship between authority and liberty. He emphasizes the importance of individuality, which he conceived as a prerequisite to the higher pleasures—the summum bonum of utilitarianism. Furthermore, Mill criticizes the errors of past attempts to defend individuality where, for example, democratic ideals resulted in the “tyranny of the majority”. "Utilitarianism" is a classic exposition and defence of utilitarianism in ethics. The essay first appeared as a series of three articles published in Fraser’s Magazine in 1861; the articles were collected and reprinted as a single book in 1863. Mill’s aim in the book is to explain what utilitarianism is, to show why it is the best theory of ethics, and to defend it against a wide range of criticisms and misunderstandings. At the time of its publication, the essay’s argument for equality between the sexes in "The Subjection of Women" was an affront to European conventional norms regarding the status of men and women.