On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill (1859)

In On Liberty (1859), British philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill presents one of the most influential defenses of individual freedom ever written. Mill argues that people should generally be free to think, speak, and live as they choose, so long as their actions do not harm others—a principle that became central to modern debates over liberty and the limits of government power. But Mill is concerned not only with oppression by the state; he also warns about the "tyranny of the majority," in which social pressure and conventional opinion can silence unpopular ideas and discourage individuality. In this episode, we explore Mill's famous harm principle, his defense of free expression and unconventional ways of life, and his enduring argument that a free society benefits when individuals are allowed to question accepted beliefs, experiment with how they live, and develop their own ideas of a good life.