Rousseau's Social Contract and John Stuart Mill's On Liberty Essay - 1

Rousseau's Social Contract and John Stuart Mill's On Liberty - Essay Example Mills differs with Rousseau regarding the fundamental basis of freedom, by arguing that individual rights grant man freedom, and by extension makes the society free. On his part, Rousseau argues that individual rights make an individual a slave of oneself, by making him obey his self-desire (Rousseau, 56). This way, there is no accumulation of private property, which ends up creating insecurity, considering that an individual holds more at the expense of others, who are in turn compelled to take away what the individual is not using (Rousseau, 22). Rousseau also argues that it is through the submission of individual rights, that order is created in the society since the submission of individual interest for the sake of upholding general interests of all ends-up creating a legitimate society. Rousseau, therefore, concludes that an individual’s duty to the society supersedes all the other interests, including the interests of oneself. Therefore, liberty is beneficial when it is operating in the realm of the whole society, as opposed to when it is operating within the zoning of an individual right since it ends-up making the individual a slave of himself (Rousseau, 36). On his side, Mill observes that liberty is beneficial, since it enables the creation of a healthy society, with good citizenship and absolute freedom for mankind (Mill, 16). Even though he agrees with Rousseau that the liberty of man need to be regulated, he differs with him, in arguing that individuality should not be suppressed and exchanged with the duty to community, since individuality is the basis of retaining the basic rights of individuals, which in turn prevents an individual from being dominated over by the tyranny of the majority (Mill, 22). Therefore, individuals should be allowed to pursue their desired ends without any interference, barriers or obstacles from either the society or the government, since it is this pursuit of individual’s desired ends that creates happines s to the individuals, and thus leads to a productive and civilized society.