On Liberty

John Stuart Mill's arguments, put forth in his book "On Liberty," rely very heavily on a few things, both common sense, and examples from real life situations of his time. Common sense is such an important tool to him, especially as it relates to the harm principle, and from his common sense, he applies common sense examples from his time period to lead the reader on a logical path, which ultimately portrays liberty as the …

…it is to disregard them completely when they cannot do any service whatsoever. Mill is consistent though, and his consistency grants his argument much weight, especially when one considers the applications of such examples of foot binding in today's culture. Because he could see ahead of his time, it becomes hard to criticize him, because his examples are so common place that a not so dissimilar situation could be applied to today's conceptions of liberty.