Religion & Philosophy Holiday 2022 - 94 - “The Greatest Good Of The Community Is Inseparable From The Liberty Of The Individual”: First Edition Of John Stuart Mill’s Classic On Liberty, 1859 91. MILL, John Stuart. On Liberty. London, 1859. Octavo, original blind-stamped brown cloth rebacked with original spine laid down. $7500. First edition of Mill’s most famous work—“the final stage in the growth of Utilitarian doctrine” (PMM)—in original cloth. “Mill realized that the ‘greatest good’ of the community is inseparable from the liberty of the individual. Hitherto, liberty had always been considered relative, in relation to tyranny or oppression: Mill extended tyranny to include a custom-ridden majority, and declared that ‘the sole end for which mankind is justified in interfering with liberty of action is self-protection’… Many of Mill’s ideas are now the commonplaces of democracy. His arguments for freedom of every kind of thought or speech have never been improved on. He was the first to recognize the tendency of a democratically elected majority to tyrannize over a minority… Mill’s On Liberty remains his most widely read book. It represents the final stage in the growth of Utilitarian doctrine” (PMM 345). “On Liberty is regarded as one of the finest expressions of 19thcentury liberalism” (Baugh, 1323). With four-page publisher’s catalog bound in at rear. Owner stamp. Scattered marginal pencil markings. Faint foxing to preliminary and concluding pages, slight soiling and a bit of toning to original cloth, spine leaning slightly. An extremely good copy. “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.”
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