POLS 2900 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: On Liberty, Authoritarianism, Human Nature
27 Nov 2016
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Mill: defense of liberty: mill"s modified utilitarianism, human nature progressive, qualitative distinctions between pleasures, virtue + happiness, on liberty (1859, rights vs. utility, tyranny of majority than other societies. This kind of tyranny is enforced through shaming people. A new kind of authoritarianism that"s on the rise. You see this more in democracies through major social outlets. This is kind of an authoritarianism that"s getting stronger. This is limiting individual freedom as much as govt interference. He sees this happening in his own society, very intolerant and bigoted. This power of society over the individual is growing, its kind of a disposition of human beings. We pressure eachother and ourselves to conform, but this disposition gets stronger cause theres no restrain on this as society is becoming more democratic. Whats needed is to determine limit beyond which individual freedom can be interfered with: one very simple principle (where to place the limit) It"s a general principle called the harm priniciple.
