...British philosopher John Stuart Mill argued powerfully that civil or social liberty concerns mainly "the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individuals." For him, liberty meant protection not only "against the tyranny of the political rulers"...

...minority liberty'.*3 As Mill phrased it, 'The subject of this essay is ... civil, or social liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual'. It was, Mill suggested, 'a question . . . [that] is likely soon to make itself recognized as the vital...

...defines social liberty in the sense of (negative) freedom of individuals from social coercion, viz. the "nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual." This definition seems more suggestive of what he calls public liberty than of social freedom understood...

...without interference from other people or government. "The struggle between Liberty and Authority" and "the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual" (Liberty, 5) constitute the central theme of his book. Particularly by focusing on conscience, thought,...

...the extent of social control over the individual. In John Stuart Mill's words, it seeks to determine 'the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual', or 'to make the fitting adjustment between individual independence and social control'.45 This raises...

...this Essay," John Stuart Mill explains at the outset of his On Liberty, is "Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual." An important branch of this subject is, he says, "the Liberty of Thought, from which it is impossible...

...some forms of character flagrantly clashes with his argument in On Liberty that there are limits to "the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual" (CW XVIII 217). His Liberty Principle expresses the boundaries of society's legitimate use of compulsion...