Mill says people express their opinion different from other and the people who are spoken up is still better than people who hold their opinion. People who hold their opinion lose their opportunity to exchange their thought whether that thought is right or wrong. The better way to gain experience is to learn from the mistake. There are two hypotheses and each of those has a distinct branch of the argument corresponding to it. First, sometimes it is good to remain silent. An opinion may only value for the time that take its action. It could be ejected in the future.

Please post your major detail summaries in the blog so we can have a look at them. See you in class on Wednesday.

At this point, you have probably struggled enough with teh summary and may be wondering just how well you have done. It's a tough call, no matter the text being summarized. To help, here is the summary I have come up with. Yours need not match mine, but this is a good guide. I won't bother with attributing the material to Mill, which is something you need to do.

Liberty can mean any number of things to different people. John Stuart Mill is no exception, and he let his opinions be known in the text of his work On Liberty. In the first chapter, he speaks in depth about what liberty was, what it was becoming, and where it should have been for his time. He also goes about at great length discussing the tyranny of the majority, and how it can be just as bad, if not worse, than the tyranny that the people were already trying to protect themselves from.

THE ESSENCE OF LIBERTY

The subject of Civil or Social Liberty as to the limits of power that society has over individuals; has been a topic of controversy from the dawn of civilization. John Stuart Mill a philosopher of the nineteenth century cites this was not a new subject, though rarely discussed and has had a profound impact on civilized cultures.

Chapter one of On Liberty can be summarized by the struggle between the minorities and majorities for both social and civil liberties. John Stuart Mills wrote “The aim, therefore, of patriots was to set limits to the power which the ruler should be suffered to exercise over the community; and this limitation is what they meant by Liberty”. In other words equalizing the enforcement of laws and opinions.

Have a draft of your essay posted in the blog. Please use your name as part of the subject line, so it will be "brad's essay one draft" or something like that.

Also, if you read all of the material attached to the assignment, you'll see a draft of an essay that should give you an idea about how to structure yours. The draft is in no way perfect, but it has the general format (intro with thesis, summary, response and conclusion) that you want to use. One place it falls short is the response is under-developed, so keep that in mind as you work on your draft.

Remember, that the draft need not be perfect, but should be the best you can do up to this point. We will have time to work in class and to have mini-conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a final review on Thursday before the essay is due Friday.

In the summarized material below, I crossed off a few passages that read as commentary. Summary should be a straight delivery of the facts and nothing more. Something of an exception to this is that it must be made clear that the summary is coming from someone else, that the words and ideas belong to someone, so provide attribution, such as "Mill writes . . .." This should be done regularly, but not overdone.

Liberty is not a new idea, rather one that has been socially unacceptable for discussion. With progress of civilization, the issue presents itself with new conditions and “requires a different and more fundamental treatment.”
Liberty is defined as “protection against the tyranny of political rulers.” Limits were needed to rein in the corrupt officials, those who used their power against the people. It progressed to “elected and temporary” officials, adopted throughout civilization. But too much power was placed in the limits, and what power they had.

A concept long practiced both in secret as well as the public eye is the struggle between the governing powers and the individual as to whom has the final say regarding control over ones life, thoughts and beliefs. As rulers are given, generally by birthright, the authority to dictate what was and was not just and permitted but also have the obligation to protect those they govern.