Moral Arguement

From JS Mill On Liberty 1859

The following is from the summary of a long argument in John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. He is arguing that freedom of speech and opinion should be respected by law and by public opinion. He gives four different grounds or premises for his argument. In the book, he gives lots (LOTS) of examples, but they are mostly from 19th century England or ancient Rome. Try to think up your own examples for each of his premises.

Examples are an excellent way to fill out an argument and also to test a claim.

One point of this assignment is to see how an ethical argument works. Another is to practice laying out a position and its argument, and then proceeding to provide critical insights.

…

We have now recognized the necessity to the mental well-being of mankind (on which all their other well-being depends) of freedom of opinion, and freedom of the expression of opinion, on four distinct grounds; which we will now briefly recapitulate.

First, if any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility.

Secondly, though the silenced opinion be an error, it may, and very commonly does, contain a portion of truth; and since the general or prevailing opinion on any object is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.

Thirdly, even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds. And not only this, but, fourthly, the meaning of the doctrine itself will be in danger of being lost, or enfeebled, and deprived of its vital effect on the character and conduct: the dogma becoming a mere formal profession, inefficacious for good, but cumbering the ground, and preventing the growth of any real and heartfelt conviction, from reason or personal experience.

Lay out Mill’s 4 premises (paraphrase) and his conclusion:

Premise 1.

give your own supporting example

Premise 2.

give your own supporting example

Premise 3.

give your own supporting example

Premise 4.

give your own supporting example

Conclusion:

What are some stated or unstated assumptions of this argument?

What weaknesses does the argument have?