Commentary on Mills' Chapter Five (Applications)

In chapter five Mills presents us with examples of how his two maxims or principles can be applied in society.  It seems that the argument made by one of my colleagues was based on an introduction of what the chapter was going to be about rather than an argument on its content and how the government should apply Mills’ two maxims. For instance, premises 1 to 6 are just introductory lines of the introduction of chapter five. In addition, stating the two maxims as the last two premises reduces the importance of the two maxims and their applications, which I believe is Mills’argument.

Therefore in order to fully grasp the applications of the principles found in chapter five, we need to able to answer these questions: what are these two principles that Mills gives us? How does Mills believe the state or government should apply these two principles? What are some examples?

The two principles are, first, “the individual is not accountable to society for his actions in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself;” therefore, Society should not punish or persecute an individual for his opinions or actions if they only concern himself (93).  The second principal is that, “for such actions as are prejudicial to the interests of others, the individual is accountable and may be subjected either to social or to legal punishment if society is of opinion that the one or the other is requisite for its protection” (93). In other words, if the individual commits an action that would harm others and society feels that he is liable for the damages, he should be punished. The argument’s conclusion should be based on these two maxims, instead of a reverberation of the introductory paragraph.

The argument should have had at least one premise where you can state an example on how the government should apply some of these cases or scenarios. For instance, Mills believe that putting restrictions on trade is a violation of the individual’s liberty. The seller should place any value on his goods as well as the buyer should be allowed to buy wherever and whatever he wants, because this, indeed, is what is called free trade (94).  In the case of drunkenness, if the individual’s drunkenness only concerns himself it should not be put under restrictions. However, if the individual has been convicted of violating the rights of others under the influence he should be held accountable and be put under legal restriction (96). Another example was that of idleness. A person who’s idleness does not constitute a breach of contract or is being supported by public assistance, cannot be legally punished (97). These are some of the applications that Mills put as examples of how the maxims should be applied.

Mills claims that the State sometimes withheld the liberty of the individual with the excuse that “the affairs of others are his own affairs” (103).  The government infringement of the individual’s liberty on things that only concern themselves should never exist.   In summary, the government should not impede but should stimulate and help individual development. The government or state is the people composing it (113).