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Mill “On Liberty” – Freedom & Empire | Philosophy Tube

Philosophy Tube | November 20, 2025



John Stuart Mill’s “On Liberty” is huge in politics and criminal law: but what are the limits of freedom? And how does the history of the British Empire in India come into it?
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Recommended Reading:
Mill, “On Liberty”
Mill, “A Few Words on Non-Intervention”
Mark Tunick, “Tolerant Imperialism,” in The Review of Politics
Bart Schultz, “Mill and Sidgwick, Imperialism and Racism”
David Goldberg, “Liberalism’s Limits,” in Nineteenth Century Contexts
Falguni Sheth, Toward a Political Philosophy of Race

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Comments

This post currently has 39 comments.

  3. @Ashoerchen

    November 20, 2025 at 9:30 am

    I think agitated, unrelated percussion as background music is by far the most superior way to strengthen the understanding of JS Mills views on liberty and colonialism.

  5. @landsea7332

    November 20, 2025 at 9:30 am

    At the beginning of the English / Scottish Enlightenment , From the Levellers and John Locke to Issac Newton
    we see the
    – the promotion of the Rights of the Individual
    – the use of science and reasoning to improve the human condition
    What occurs over the next 300 years , is that by massive struggle, one group after another joins and is included
    to have Democratic Rights , Legal Rights , Labour rights , access to Public Programs , Public Health , Transportation , Communication and to use science , technology and architecture .

    Probably the best example is the franchise
    – Charles I says he has the Divine Right to Rule
    – during the English Civil Wars the Levellers want the vote , but this this movement ends .
    – With the 1689 English Bill of Rights wealthy land owners are secured the vote in elections
    – During the 19th Century – The Charist Movement and 3 Parliamentarian Reform Acts – males have the vote
    – The Suffragette Movement succeeds after WW I
    – 1960 Universal Suffrage occurs in Canada – 1962 in Australia
    .

  6. @landsea7332

    November 20, 2025 at 9:30 am

    0:21 When can the government legitimately restrict your freedoms .
    " The Social Contract " – The rights a person gives up to the state , in order to live is structured society .
    Hobbes and John Locke wrote about this subject . Rousseu coined the phrase .
    .

  9. @SSNewberry

    November 20, 2025 at 9:30 am

    I know you have thought about this, but you should think about going for a Ph.D. This is for reasons positive and negative. On the plus side, it is clear that you have novel views on many thorny issues. On the negative side, you often miss putting together certain aspects of ideas with clearly related to each other (such as the concept of rake-monkey and climate change as a general concept). It hurts that the form gets in the way of your own cognition. That and you will obsess less about Elon Musk, who is an accident looking for a place to happen, and Peterson, who is the Ayn Rand of the age. (Not a compliment.) My thoughts.

  13. @sarahhardridge2392

    November 20, 2025 at 9:30 am

    I've watched hundreds of Phil lectures and this one very accurately describes Mill and the overarching instructions of Utilitarianism and Colonization. It is fair and balanced by weighing the truth against what has become the new "normal" truth. VWD

  22. @sarahhardridge2392

    November 20, 2025 at 9:30 am

    Ie., The Great Reset by Claus Schwab, creator of the WEF. Though not on racial so to speak bias, however, the chattle that has grown too many and unwilling to help themselves. Therefore, positive liberties come to play again in the current agenda of the day.

  27. @jonascarrillo8699

    November 20, 2025 at 9:30 am

    Abigail I am really happy to have found your channel. This video alone made me see more things a bout ethics than a full course at my university. Thanks a lot for sharing it and for your dedication on the produccion of really good films specialy in your later videos.

  30. @padraigmcgrath3876

    November 20, 2025 at 9:30 am

    In Mill's formulation of the "harm to others" principle, he held that the government could legitimately coerce you only if you harm somebody else TO A DEGREE WHICH WOULD OUTWEIGH THE HARM DONE BY CURTAILING YOUR FREEDOM. The reason why this final sub-clause is important is that Mill believed that the exercise of liberty was of value because it enabled human beings to grow. Depriving a person of their freedoms was sometimes a necessary evil, but was nonetheless still an evil. because it stunted human moral and intellectual growth. Therefore, in Mill's argument, it was not enough merely for me to be harming you before the government could legitimately intervene – it was necessary for me to cause harm to a certain non-trivial degree. The way Mill saw it, there was a threshold-level of harm which had to be met before the criterion became relevant.

  32. @catsaresocute650

    November 20, 2025 at 9:30 am

    If you need to force people to exercise for your health-care systhem, then that is only showing that your system has not worked. It should be modified so that it is unneeccery to force. My take on that

  35. @ivanivanoff540

    November 20, 2025 at 9:30 am

    Marxism has the ability to notice only what confirms its theses and to ignore everything else. In imperialism and colonialism, Marxism sees only the exploitation of the peoples of Africa, India, and others. Marxism does not give credit to Europeans for the civilization and education of the peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin America. The process of making a civilized man out of the savage is not easy at all. Educating people who, throughout their evolution, have created a language of a thousand words is also not easy.But the hardest thing is for a savage to be taught to work. It is not possible to have a civilized society without work habits, work skills. There is no nation in human history where people have voluntarily begun to work. The Indians of North America preferred to die rather than become farmers. All nations, including Europeans, have gone through slavery and learned to work after brutal violence and slavery. Education and civilization give great freedoms to the peoples, and this is the merit of the colonial powers. The savage is the most unfree man, and without colonialism these peoples would still be in a wild state.
    Marxism is not a good position to defend freedoms.

  37. @najia4631

    November 20, 2025 at 9:30 am

    "But we're not worried whether we'd be comfortable having him around at the dinner or not, right? He's dead." 😂😂
    So blessed to have come across your channel, you explained it so skilfully, thanks a bunch!!

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