Liberty:- Freedom to do as one wishes, so long as their actions do not diminish another self’s access and enjoyment of their own private sphere of influence. A person’s private sphere includes the self, and all fruits of the self’s labour, including their belongings and property (JS Mill On Liberty).
Aside:
There are two well known implications that cascade from this argument:
1. Intervention by a higher authority is morally justifiable only to stop a self impacting on another self’s private sphere, without the latters permission. Victimless crimes such as recreational drug use cannot be made morally punishable by law.
2. Slavery is untenable. If every self owns themselves, a self cannot by definition be owned by another.
Utilitarianism:- The goal of public policy is to achieve the “greatest happiness for the most.” If we could tally every individual’s utility and aggregate it to form a measure of societal utility, the goal of public policy is to maximize this. (JS Mill Utilitarianism).
This question is sometimes posed:
Can Liberty exist in a Utilitarian world?
Isn’t it utility maximizing to outlaw recreational drug use, so that a person won’t kill himself from a heroin addiction?
The answer is that Utility can only be maximized by having Liberty. The drug addicts utility is maximized with sustained substance abuse even if death results. Another example is seatbelts in cars. By respecting Liberty, legislating compulsory seatbelt use is morally indefensible, but even if death of a risktaking motorist results from not having such a law, their utility has still been maximized.
Sometimes the mixture of Liberty and Utility necessitates suicide, such as the heroin addict or the risk-taking motorist. It’s the price we have to be prepared to pay to be truly free.
