Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against their will, is to prevent harm to others.”
John Stuart Mill · Liberalism · Modern · 1859
What does it mean?
Mill's harm principle limits compulsion, not concern. Your own good, physical or moral, is not a sufficient reason for others to force you. Harm to other people is the kind of reason that can justify force. A rival reading, perfectionist and some communitarian, says a society may coerce people for their own good when the harm is slow, or when 'harm' is drawn so narrowly that domination never counts. He excludes children, and populations he wrongly calls uncivilised, from the full principle. Those exclusions are part of the sentence's history, not a footnote you may drop.
Did John Stuart Mill really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Mill's own English, with 'his' modernised to 'their'. The sentence is the harm principle. He immediately excludes children and populations he wrongly calls uncivilised — exclusions that matter when you use the line.
Where it comes from
On Liberty, chapter 1
Approximate date: 1859.
How to use it
Before a council in Cardiff bans a peaceful habit because it looks undignified, name the harm to other people. If the honest answer is that the habit would be better for the person doing it, you are outside the principle, even if you still have other reasons of your own.
A mindset reading
The principle is not 'do no harm, ever'. Persuasion stays open where force is not. He also thinks harm includes more than a bruise. Where he draws that line, in chapter 4, is where the arguments start.
Understand the philosophy
On Liberty defends individuality as an element of wellbeing, not as a whim. The harm principle is how he tries to stop a democratic majority tyrannising experiments in living. Harriet Taylor Mill is part of the book's thinking, on his own account.
- freedom
- justice
- power
FAQ
What does it mean?
Mill's harm principle limits compulsion, not concern. Your own good, physical or moral, is not a sufficient reason for others to force you. Harm to other people is the kind of reason that can justify force. A rival reading, perfectionist and some communitarian, says a society may coerce people for their own good when the harm is slow, or when 'harm' is drawn so narrowly that domination never counts. He excludes children, and populations he wrongly calls uncivilised, from the full principle. Those exclusions are part of the sentence's history, not a footnote you may drop.
Did John Stuart Mill really say this?
Well attested. Mill's own English, with 'his' modernised to 'their'. The sentence is the harm principle. He immediately excludes children and populations he wrongly calls uncivilised — exclusions that matter when you use the line.
Which work is it in?
On Liberty, chapter 1 Approximate date: 1859.