'ON LIBERTY' AND MORALITY-DEPENDENT HARMS

Abstract. J. S. Mill's'On Liberty', according to Richard Wollheim and C. L. Ten, carries the idea that if a first individual causes harm to a second, but the harm is owed also to the second individual's belief that the action was wrong, the harm is irrelevant to any judgement about intervention by the state and society. Wollheim and Ten ascribe to Mill different principles of liberty sharing the given idea. However, neither the idea nor the principles can be assigned to Mill. There is no adequate textual basis for doing so, and there is resulting inconsistency. Rejection of the idea is relevant to more than'On Liberty'and Utilitarianism.