ipl-logo

Analysis Of John Stewart Mill's Essay On Liberty

531 Words3 Pages

Liberty is the foundation that our nation is built upon. In his essay, On Liberty, John Stewart Mill addresses the issue of liberty, and more specifically, the principles relating to it. As a student myself, I have bear witness to the controversial laws that require mandatory school attendance. As a Connecticut resident, our schools were required to be in session for no less than 181 days; students were not allowed to miss more than 10 sessions of each of their classes. Letters are sent home warning parents of the serious repercussions that would not only be applied to their child, but to the parents themselves. This law, when examined from Mill’s viewpoints, is acceptable; and although it pains me to say it, I agree with this position.
Education is the basis of everything that comprises a well-functioning society; without the education of the masses, it would fall apart. Mill’s central ideology in his essay is utility; he argues that everything that imposes on a person’s liberties has to be done for the reason of the advancement of man (11). The primary purpose for laws and regulations issued by the government is to preserve the three fundamental …show more content…

Since the state cannot wake-up every student for school, the state put’s the legal guardians in charge of getting their responsibility to school for at least the minimum number of days. Which is why Mill believes that when they fail to do so, they are bringing harm onto another person, and effectively allow their liberties to be retracted by the government. Although it involves government interference, children are unable to form educated decisions, and in order for man to advance, and for society to live up to the majority’s standards, mandatory school attendance policies are a necessary evil that we all must abide

Show More
Related

  • Horace Mann's Common School Movement

    1291 Words  | 6 Pages

    Horace Mann was the leading voice in the common school movement. The purpose of the common school was to create a school, open to everyone, that was not “influenced by private or religious societies.” Mann’s vision of the common school is outlined in his annual reports to the Massachusetts Board of Education. In his tenth and twelfth report he pushed for universal, public education, revolving around similar curriculum. He emphasizes the importance of school as the place where children cultivate their moral character and are instilled with ethical values.

    Read More

  • 14th Amendment In Schools

    540 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is imperative that school administrators understand the underlying argument of property rights in relation to student’s school attendance. The school administrator represents the government, and as such must provide equal protection to all students to take advantage of this right. They also must understand the relevance of taking away an individual’s right without due process of the law, which is particularly relevant to suspensions and

    Read More

  • Horace Mann's Arguments Against Common School Reform

    295 Words  | 2 Pages

    Horace Mann acknowledged many arguments made against common school reform during his tenth and twelfth annual reports to the Massachusetts Board of Education. Two of these oppositions included fear of religious division and concern of unwelcomed government involvement. In his advocacy for universal public education, Mann counteracted such disputes by insuring religion to be a private matter and government involvement to be a beneficial necessity for the common good. Resisters of common school reform accused supporters (including Mann) of introducing an “irreligious and anti-Christian” system and wanting to exclude religion from public education, while taking away religious authority and influence (Mann, 1848). Mann acknowledged these grave

    Read More

  • Student Declaration Of Independence

    535 Words  | 3 Pages

    Declaration: I hold these truths to be self-evident, that all students are created equal and are given by their Creator the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of whatever makes them happy. In order to have control over these rights teachers and parents should understand that us students

    Read More

  • Locke Vs Tocqueville Analysis

    1084 Words  | 5 Pages

    Introduction: While freedom as a concept feels fairly intuitive, nuances in interpretation can change the basis of an argument. John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government and Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America do not define liberty in precisely the same way, which in turn guides two different visions in how a government should function. When examining a core concept in an argument, it is important to inquire to whether its treatment is adequate. Is either definition of liberty sufficient, and does either author’s envisioned government adequately address liberty in that system? This paper will argue that Locke’s definition of liberty remains in the literal sphere while Tocqueville’s is more conceptual, but neither Locke’s nor Tocqueville’s

    Read More

  • Logos And Ethos In The Declaration Of Independence

    902 Words  | 4 Pages

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. This statement by the Founding Fathers is the core disagreement between the 13 Colonies and Great Britain. Throughout this historical document, there are multiple arguments made to get the authors’ point across. The authors’ effectively use logos, ethos, and pathos to contribute to the formation of the concluding argument. Logos is used because the thesis is straight to the point and it is supported throughout the entire document.

    Read More

  • Impact Of The Tinker V. Des Moines Independent Community School District

    1109 Words  | 5 Pages

    According to a United States Supreme Court ruling, public schools have the ability to restrict students’ First Amendment rights. This became true in the Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District Supreme Court case when Mary Beth Tinker, John Tinker, and Christopher Eckhart wore black arm bands to protest the Vietnam War. In order to understand Tinker v. Des Moines Supreme Court case one must establish the history, examine the case, and explain the impacts. During time of war in the 1960’s a case from a small town, Des Moines, Iowa, made its way to the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court.

    Read More

  • What Is The Fifth Amendment In Public School Essay

    394 Words  | 2 Pages

    The farmers of the Constitution feared that the American government would abuse their power similar to governments they dealt with in their past. With this in mind, the farmers of the Constitution created unalienable rights for all American citizens to protect us. Public entities are not sanctioned to dismiss rights of people/students whenever they see fit. Consequently, when the state decides to empower public school officials to suspend students without a hearing or notice they are entering in illegal territory.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Stormy Mind Of John Stuart Mill

    1104 Words  | 5 Pages

    I chose to review the fifth chapter of “New Ideas From Dead Economists” titled The Stormy Mind of John Stuart Mill. John Stuart Mill was born in 1806 in London to two strict parents who began to educate their son at a very young age. Mill’s father was James Mill, a famous historian and economist, who began to teach his son Greek at the age of three. The book reports that “by eight, the boy had read Plato, Xenophon, and Diogenes” and by twelve “Mill exhausted well-stocked libraries, reading Aristotle and Aristophanes and mastering calculus and geometry” (Buchholz 93). The vast amount of knowledge that Mill gained at a young age no doubt assisted him in becoming such a well-recognized philosopher and economist.

    Read More

  • Summary Of John Stuart Mill's Consideration On Representative Government

    1128 Words  | 5 Pages

    Introduction: John Stuart Mill essay on Consideration On representative Government, is an argument for representative government. The ideal form of government in Mill's opinion. One of the more notable ideas Mill is that the business of government representatives is not to make legislation. Instead Mill suggests that representative bodies such as parliaments and senates are best suited to be places of public debate on the various opinions held by the population and to act as watchdogs of the professionals who create and administer laws and policy.

    Read More

  • Essay On Preservation Of Liberty

    765 Words  | 4 Pages

    A Constitutional Perspective on The Preservation of Liberty To establish which amendment in the Bill of Rights is the most influential to the preservation of liberty, one must first determine the true meaning of the word liberty. The Oxford dictionary defines liberty as “The state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behaviour, or political views.” Not only is this one of the core values ingrained into the base of our American culture, but it is also one of the main characteristics of a successful community (“First Amendment.”) Many societies argue that citizens do not have basic rights, the first amendment does the best job at protecting the nation's rights from the government by giving individuals freedom of speech, religion, and freedom of petition. The First Amendment has five freedoms guaranteed for the American people’s such as the right to religion, speech, and petition.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Mill And Marx's Oppression Of Women

    1463 Words  | 6 Pages

    1. Mill and Marx both argue that women are oppressed in modern society. How are their understandings of this oppression similar/different? Mill’s and Marx’s understanding of female oppression by the society is more different than similar.

    Read More

  • Film Analysis Of The Movie 'Separate But Equal'

    1556 Words  | 7 Pages

    In today’s world where racial discrimination is rife, though covert, what is needed is a slight push to incite action in people so as to curb this practice in the most effective manner- bringing all its manifestations under the purview of the law. Hence, I chose this movie in order to not only analyze the nuanced facets of the law but also to delineate the relevance of the same in the current context in a hope that it serves as the source for the much-needed push. Plot Synopsis: The movie begins with the portrayal of a ‘black’ public school in South Carolina in the late 1950s and how distance from home to the closest ‘appropriate’ school makes it impossible for students to be on time to school. This predicament drives the principal of the school to approach the authorities and demand for a

    Read More

  • John Stuart Mill The Negro Question Analysis

    1914 Words  | 8 Pages

    My topic originated from reading Thomas Carlyle and John Stuart Mill 's debate in December 1849-January 1850. Both writers published anonymously in Fraser ' Magazine, with Carlyle writing a violent critique, ‘Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question’, and Mill sending in an outraged response simply entitled ‘The Negro Question’ that appeared in the following issue. Counteracting Carlyle 's very racist vision of the repartition of work among Black and White Jamaicans with arguments undermining that conception , Mill retorted But I again renounce all advantage from facts: were the whites born ever so superior in intelligence to the blacks, and competent by nature to instruct and advise them, it would not be the less monstrous to assert that

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of John Stuart Mill's 'Utilitarianism'

    1564 Words  | 7 Pages

    John Stuart Mill, at the very beginning of chapter 2 entitled “what is utilitarianism”. starts off by explaining to the readers what utility is, Utility is defined as pleasure itself, and the absence of pain. This leads us to another name for utility which is the greatest happiness principle. Mill claims that “actions are right in proportions as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” “By Happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain, by happiness, pain and the privation of pleasure”.

    Read More

More about Analysis Of John Stewart Mill's Essay On Liberty

Open Document