ABSTRACT
The aim of On Liberty is twofold. It is to show that individual liberty is the foundation of individual fulfilment and the fulcrum of progress towards a society of ethically and intellectually well-developed citizens; it is also to show the exact limits that maximisation of individual liberty imposes on government involvement in social relations between citizens. The linchpin between these two related goals is the establishment of a general principle which simultaneously indicates the purpose of state restrictions on individual activity and sets the limits of such restrictions. Mill ‘asserts this very simple principle’ (Warnock 1962: 135), which has since become known as ‘the harm principle’, at the outset of his essay. There is, he says,
one very simple principle as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control. . . . The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because to do so in the eyes of others would be wise or even right.
