Conflicting Visions of Freedom in John Stuart Mill’s On...

John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty and John Locke’s The Second Treatise of Government are influential literary works while which outlining the theoretical framework of each thinkers optimal state propose two conflicting visions of the very essence of man and his freedom. Locke and Mill have completely different views when it comes to how much freedom man should have in political society because they have obtained different views about man’s potential of inheriting pure or evil behavior. In chapter two labeled as â€Å"Liberty of Thought and Discussion†, Mill includes two separate arguments in his writing. His first argument focuses on the assumption that suppressed opinions could be true for all we know; this argument takes place on pages 16-17.†¦show more content†¦Also, does anyone, including those making the objection(s), believe benefits are independent of truth? The second argument speaks of false statements being silenced, and how it nevertheless affects humanity negatively. Even false opinions have value that is being denied. Confidence is created in the truth by believing what man believes in a strong manner; it is the way that the people believe something. The primary harm involves having no real understanding of a person’s opinion. Man believes that something is true, but they are unable to explain WHY it is true. Opinions such as these are believed upon authority. Then, when man is unable to defend their opinions, they go to the oth er side of the argument and end up embracing a sense of falsehood. In a general sense, truth is exchanged for error. The objection to the second argument inquiries, â€Å"Doesn’t growth of knowledge cause more beliefs to turn into dead dogmas?† One must look very hard in order to distinguish those who believe the Earth to be flat from those who believe that the Earth is round. Once these complicated webs are rid of, social progress is able to occur. As for John Locke, he believes that man should have more freedom in political society than Mill does. In The Second Treatise of Government, Locke defines freedom as the belief that all human beings coexist in a state of perfection to order their