On Liberty (Rethinking the Western Tradition) [Hardcover]

John Stuart Mill (Author), Professor David Bromwich (Editor), Professor George Kateb (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Rethinking the Western Tradition | Publication Date: January 11, 2003

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

. . . . Mill is part of the air we breathe. . . . His treatise. . . . deserves attention. -- (Michael Potemra, National Review)

About the Author

David Bromwich is Housum Professor of English at Yale University. George Kateb is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University. Jean Bethke Elshtain is Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago. Owen Fiss is Sterling Professor of Law at Yale University. Richard Posner is a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Jeremy Waldron is Hilda Friedman Professor of Law at Columbia University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (January 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300096089
• ISBN-13: 978-0300096088
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 6.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,702,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bromwich and Kateb Edition is Very Helpful., January 19, 2009

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Kevin Currie-Knight "Education Grad Student" (Newark, Delaware) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On Liberty (Rethinking the Western Tradition) (Kindle Edition)

I ihave read Mill's On Liberty three times now. The Bromwich and Kateb version is the most helpful, as we not only get to read Mill's essay, but 6 supplementary essays - two "introductions" and four sometimes critical "reinterpretations" by respected theorists.

Milll's basic point is simple: people should be left free to think and do as they please unless what they are doing causes actual harm to others. Mill's essay is spent both giving reasons for this principle, and exlporing what the principle means in practice.

He offers a plurality of reasons for his libertarian ideas, some utilitarian in nature and some based on (what some might call) natural law. Not only does freedom of action and thought encourage innnovation, keep public discussion vigorous, and lead to a more effective social network than government incursion, but people just-plain prefer directing their own lives to being directed from outside.

Mill gets into sticky territory, however, when he talks about the libertarian principle in concrete terms, as his distinction between what is private and what is public is often less clear than he might want. Should persons be free to tell others to do harm to themselves? Yes. Should parents be free not to educate their children? No. Should "vice-merchants" like bars, gambling parlors, and pornographers be free to conduct business without heavy government regulation? No. Should people be free to marry a plurality of spouses? If mormon, yes. If British, no.

My biggest criticism - and a criticism offered in Richard Posner and Jeane Bethke Elshtain's essays - is that Mill is all over the map when his principle is "put to the real world" because the distinction between public and private is just-plain fuzzy. Another interesting criticism, brought up in Elshtain's essay, is that Mill demonstrates a very unjustified bias in favor of experiment over tradition (where the former seems always presumed inferior to the latter).

In short, I like Mill's essay but see it as an edifice built on not-quite-solid sand. Mill relies on seperate categories, public and private, that are just not clear and distinct enough to be distinct. (While Dewey may have gone too far in the "all acts are social" direction, I think Dewey hit closer to the truth.) This is why the six supplementary essays in this edition are a nice touch.