John Stuart Mill

In On Liberty, published in 1859, Mill argues that power should only be used against someone to prevent harm to others. He rejects interference based merely on protecting adults from their own choices.

Jeremy Bentham emphasized maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain in a more quantitative way. Mill defended utilitarianism too, but he famously distinguished higher and lower pleasures in his 1861 work Utilitarianism.

Mill wrote The Subjection of Women, published in 1869, arguing against legal and social inequality between men and women. He also served in Parliament and supported women's suffrage.

Mill argues that even false or unpopular opinions can sharpen public understanding by forcing ideas to be tested. That defense of open discussion remains central to modern arguments about speech, dissent, and social pressure.