They key factor in understanding this quote is that at this point in time the majority of people did not have the liberties that we enjoy today. Mill’s well thought out argument is about how all humans should be given their individual liberties and that no government or society should be able to take or impede on those liberties. You bring up a good point about how sometimes crushing the liberties of the individual needs to be good for the common good. I will back up your point with this example. All humans should be given the right of life. If an individual’s action or opinion impedes or takes away another individual’s right they need to be stopped. In Mill’s essay “On Liberty” he also discusses how as individuals we need to embrace our liberties as well as respect others individuality. This one quote is only one thought of a large and informative essay. I highly suggest that you read the full essay. Mill’s argument about human liberties will perhaps make more sense when you read “On Liberty” in its full entirety.
I also really enjoyed reading Wollstonecraft's arguments against Burke. While her tone, word choice and general writing style is more approachable and not so heavy handed. Her arguments are clear and concise. I felt that Burke's language was so elevated and manipulated that I felt manipulated by his words which drew attention to his intentions. It gave him away. I also couldn't help but think about how we are biased. I wonder how you or I would have felt at the time given our class, sex and background. We don't however have that luxury. Being people of the time period that we are, we are already biased to take a side with Wollstonecraft because she was ahead of her time. Her thoughts and ideas are much more in tune with our modern belief systems about equality for all man kind. Even though some may enjoy Burke's writing style and I am defintely not arguing that he was a talented writer (however heavy handed), I believe that in todays society we would be hard pressed to find someone that didn't agree with most of what Wollstonecraft has to say.
For some reason, the quotation makes me think of 19th-century voting reform. We'll be talking about it when we hit the Victorian era, but basically the reforms went on all century and gradually extended the vote to groups of people who hadn't had it before (but not women yet).
People calling for reform saw voting as a right they were being denied while the upper classes worked hard to come up with arguments about why the poorer classes didn't deserve the vote. No one called it despotism, of course--although we might now--but the arguments were definitely exactly that.
What if that "crushing" of individuality is sometimes necessary for the greater good? I'm thinking about socialism here... ;)
ReplyDeleteThey key factor in understanding this quote is that at this point in time the majority of people did not have the liberties that we enjoy today. Mill’s well thought out argument is about how all humans should be given their individual liberties and that no government or society should be able to take or impede on those liberties.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point about how sometimes crushing the liberties of the individual needs to be good for the common good. I will back up your point with this example. All humans should be given the right of life. If an individual’s action or opinion impedes or takes away another individual’s right they need to be stopped. In Mill’s essay “On Liberty” he also discusses how as individuals we need to embrace our liberties as well as respect others individuality.
This one quote is only one thought of a large and informative essay. I highly suggest that you read the full essay. Mill’s argument about human liberties will perhaps make more sense when you read “On Liberty” in its full entirety.
I also really enjoyed reading Wollstonecraft's arguments against Burke. While her tone, word choice and general writing style is more approachable and not so heavy handed. Her arguments are clear and concise. I felt that Burke's language was so elevated and manipulated that I felt manipulated by his words which drew attention to his intentions. It gave him away. I also couldn't help but think about how we are biased. I wonder how you or I would have felt at the time given our class, sex and background. We don't however have that luxury. Being people of the time period that we are, we are already biased to take a side with Wollstonecraft because she was ahead of her time. Her thoughts and ideas are much more in tune with our modern belief systems about equality for all man kind. Even though some may enjoy Burke's writing style and I am defintely not arguing that he was a talented writer (however heavy handed), I believe that in todays society we would be hard pressed to find someone that didn't agree with most of what Wollstonecraft has to say.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, the quotation makes me think of 19th-century voting reform. We'll be talking about it when we hit the Victorian era, but basically the reforms went on all century and gradually extended the vote to groups of people who hadn't had it before (but not women yet).
ReplyDeletePeople calling for reform saw voting as a right they were being denied while the upper classes worked hard to come up with arguments about why the poorer classes didn't deserve the vote. No one called it despotism, of course--although we might now--but the arguments were definitely exactly that.