In On Liberty and The Subjection of Women, Mills believes that opinions must be at their truest form to be imposed upon others, but he also thinks that there is no way to confirm the truth because there is no “absolutely certainty”. Even though he knows opinions cannot be confirmed fully he deems it necessary for these opinions to be out in the public. In chapter 2 he says, “Wrong opinions and practices gradually yield to fact and argument: but facts and arguments, to produce any affect on the mind, must be brought before it” (page 27).He’s pretty much saying that wrong opinions and practices create facts and arguments. By having these opinions in the public, it allows for the individual to learn from the criticism being brought by facts and arguments. But do you think that criticism is always supporting the individual? Do you think that criticism might just harm and degrade others?
Making the Modern World: Europe in the 19th Century
Liberalism and socialism and imperialism, oh my!
