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On Liberty

By: John Stuart Mill - Read: December 25, 2025 - Rating: 9/10

An incredible and visionary work on the basis of liberty. Mill delivers the strongest argument for the foundations of institutional design I have found across all the political philosophy I have read.

Though this book is known for its well structured defense of free speech, it is far more than that. Mill presents his vision of the flourishing of individualism as the ultimate ends of civilizational a progress, creating an aesthetically beautiful image of the results of this principle which he defends well.

The common criticism of Mill is that he is a utilitarian. In my opinion, this is a gross misread - Mill uses the word utility but clarifies that what he means by it something quite different to that of Bentham and much closer to Rawls or Sen. An exceptionally well written, erudite, and insightful book.