John Stuart Mill

a liberdade como desenvolvimento de si

Abstract

This paper deals with John Stuart Mill's doctrine of liberty. According to the author, liberty entails self-development, a critical way of life that is opposed to blind obedience. As part of the "Art of Life," liberty figures as an ethical-aesthetic ability of recreating communal moral values (which is not to say that Millian liberty is at odds with the common good). Exercising this ability would bring about, in Mills view, a developed self, one who would to some extent be free to resist social mandates.