Who was John Stuart Mill?

0:00 Welcome to Philosophy is not boring by kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. A big hello to eight-year-old Arlo and seven-year-old Flynn in South Australia, who love listening along for homeschool.

0:14 Hi Arlo and Flynn. I bet you guys are really good at arguing with each other. Which is perfect, because today we are talking about rules.

0:23 And if you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.

0:28 Okay, Mira, here is my big question for the day. If I want to eat an entire gallon of double chocolate fudge ice cream, and I don't ask you to share it, and I end up making myself totally sick, should I be allowed to do it anyway? Wait, are you actually asking if you can do that right now? Well, no. But think about it.

0:52 It's my tummy. It's my ice cream. If I am not hurting anyone else, shouldn't I be allowed to do whatever I want?

1:00 Ooh, that is the perfect hook for today's big question. Should you be allowed to do anything you want as long as it harms nobody else? Where does the phrase it's my choice actually run out?

1:13 Because honestly, most rules make sense. Like, don't hit your brother, or don't steal other people's stuff. Those rules protect other people from me.

1:23 Exactly. But what about rules that protect you from yourself? Like having to wear a helmet when you ride your scooter, or your parents saying you can't eat ice cream for dinner.

1:33 Right. Why do people care if I only mess up my own life? Isn't that my business?

1:40 To answer that, we have to travel back to England in the year 1859 to meet a very famous philosopher named John Stuart Mill. 1859? Did he wear one of those giant top hats? He definitely lived in the top hat era. John Stuart Mill was super smart. His dad started teaching him ancient Greek when he was only three years old.

2:03 Three? When I was three, I was mostly eating dirt and watching cartoons.

2:09 Well, his dad really wanted him to be a genius. And by the time Mill grew up, he was deeply obsessed with the idea of freedom. He wrote a famous book called On Liberty. What was the book about? It was about figuring out when a government, or society, is allowed to boss you around. And Mill came up with one simple giant rule about how people should live.

2:32 Lay it on me. I love a good rule. He called it the harm principle. It says the only good reason for anyone to stop you from doing something against your will is to prevent harm to other people.

2:44 Wait, so if I'm only hurting myself, nobody is allowed to stop me.

2:49 According to Mill, yes. He thought adults should be totally free to make their own mistakes, as long as they aren't hurting anyone else. Protecting you from your own bad choices is not a good enough reason to stop you.

3:02 So, if I want to juggle pineapples while riding a unicycle blindfolded, and I fall off and bonk my head, John Stuart Mill says, go for it, Finn?

3:14 Yep, because it's your head. He believed that forcing people to be safe, or telling them the right way to live, makes society boring and stuck.

3:24 I actually kind of love this guy. He's basically saying, you do you.

3:29 He really is. Mill thought people need to experiment with life to find out what truly makes them happy. He called them experiments in living.

3:39 My gallon of ice cream is definitely an experiment in living. But here is the catch.

3:44 Mill said this rule only applies to grown-ups, not to children. Oh man, why not? That is so unfair. Well, he argued that kids are still learning. You need grown-ups to protect you while you figure out how the world works. A child might not fully understand the long-term consequences of eating all that ice cream.

4:06 I fully understand it. I am just willing to take the risk.

4:10 Nice try. But even for grown-ups, the harm principle gets really, really tricky. Because the hardest part is deciding what actually counts as harm.

4:21 What do you mean? Harm is just hurting someone, like punching them or breaking their stuff. That's obvious.

4:29 Sure, physical damage is easy to spot. But what if a grown-up decides to practice playing the drums at three in the morning in an apartment building? They aren't physically touching their neighbours.

4:41 Oh, but they wouldn't be able to sleep. And they would be super grumpy the next day. Does making someone grumpy count as harm?

4:49 That is exactly what philosophers argue about. What if someone says something really mean? Does hurting someone's feelings count as harm?

4:58 I think it does. Words can hurt a lot.

5:01 Mill actually said no. Just being offended isn't enough to count as harm. But what if the words make people genuinely afraid for their safety? Then the line gets blurry.

5:13 Huh. It's kind of like everything we do connects to someone else somehow.

5:19 Exactly. Imagine a grown-up decides not to wear a seatbelt because it's my choice. But then they get in a crash and get hurt. Yeah, but they only hurt themselves, right? Did they? The doctors and nurses have to spend hours taking care of them. Their family is really sad and worried, and society has to pay for the hospital.

5:41 Wow. So even if I think I'm only hurting myself, I am actually causing trouble for everyone who cares about me or has to help me.

5:50 Yes, and that is the biggest pushback against John Stuart Mill's harm principle. Some philosophers say there is almost no such thing as an action that only affects you. We are all connected, like a giant invisible spider web.

6:05 So if I pull on my little piece of the web, the whole thing shakes. The vibrations travel to everyone else. That is a perfect way to picture it. Well, that makes my ice cream experiment sound a lot more complicated. If I get sick, you have to listen to me complain all day. Exactly!

6:25 And this isn't just an old history puzzle. We are still arguing about this today. We are? Think about it. Every time a city makes a rule about a tax on sugary sodas, or banning loud leaf blowers, or what you're allowed to build in your yard. They are arguing about John Stuart Mill's harm principle.

6:47 So next time I am arguing with mum about my bedtime, and I say, it's my body, I can stay up late. She is basically using philosophy to tell me no.

6:58 Yep, because you being cranky the next morning definitely harms the rest of the family. Your choices ripple out to the people around you.

7:08 Okay, mind blown. Tell me some more weird fact about this mill guy before my brain melts.

7:15 Well, I mentioned he learned ancient Greek at three. By age eight, he was reading famous Latin philosophers. He never went to a regular school or college. See, I told you, a rebel. But he also realised later in life that just reading books and following strict logic wasn't enough. When he was twenty, he had a kind of breakdown.

7:40 He realised his dad had forgotten to teach him how to feel emotions.

7:45 Wait, what? You can forget to learn feelings.

7:49 He was so focused on being smart that he felt totally empty inside. He actually had to start reading poetry to finally feel happy again.

7:59 That is actually really sweet. Okay, are we ready to test our brains? Alright, Finn, it's quiz time! Okay, I'm ready. Let's see if I remember everything.

8:10 First question. What was the name of the English philosopher who wrote On Liberty? Next one. What did this philosopher call his big rule about only stopping people if they hurt others? Question three. What ancient language did this philosopher start learning when he was just three years old? Here's number four.

8:42 Did the philosopher think his big rule should apply to children? Last question. What kind of writing did he have to read in his twenties to learn how to feel emotions and be happy? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is John Stuart Mill. For question two, it's called the Harm Principle.

9:10 The answer to question three is Ancient Greek. For question four, no, he said children still need grown-ups to protect them and teach them. And the final answer is poetry.

9:24 You know, I think I am going to look at rules totally differently now. Not just as things stopping me from having fun, but asking who they are trying to protect.

9:34 Me too. It is pretty amazing how a guy from 1859 can make us think so deeply about the choices we make today. We really are a giant spider web.

9:45 Speaking of choices, if you loved learning about John Stuart Mill today, you should choose to leave us a five-star review.

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10:21 See you next time on Philosophy is not boring.

10:25 Bye.