On Liberty

In "On Liberty" John Stuart Mill argued that liberty is not complete unless it is absolute. To what extent is this assertion true?

Is it correct to state that Mill was an advocate of utilitarianism or was he simply a firm believer in individual freedom?

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Mill's believed that individual liberty should be absolute with a very important exception. He noted that a person whose actions only affect himself is not eligible to be coerced or punished for his deeds. According to Mill, it is not society's duty or even its right to protect a person from him or herself. The only punishment that can result from a self-regarding action is the weight of individual public opinion and the consequence of the actual action itself.

Source(s)

On Liberty, GradeSaver