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Two Books on Liberty

文：陳力恒

Mill points out that human being is free to do what he likes, given that it makes no harm to other individuals.

Societies without liberty exist throughout the world, both real and imaginary. In old China, women did not have right to learn. In modern China, citizens do not have right to speak. The government filters knowledge. Even the leading internet search engine and portal operator, like Google and Yahoo, collaborated with the Chinese government to censor websites. For imaginary world, Thomas More's Utopia (1516) and the society in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) are two sharp models. These examples are merely tips of the iceberg.

John Stuart Mill emphasis in the beginning of On Liberty that he's concerned about civil or social liberty. The power of government is necessary but limits should be set. Mill points out that human being is free to do what he likes, given that it makes no harm to other individuals. If you had studied literature, philosophy or political science, you would have found this book in your list of course readings. On Liberty is simply a classic. Why read the classics? Italo Calvino has explained enough.

That's theory, that's what a scholar has said. All right. Then you may interest in Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom. The autobiography, of the first elected President of South Africa, traces Mandela's life and struggle. Take a look at freedom in another way.