On Liberty

For some time now I have been including a section in my course on new media in which I tell students about the philosophical and political tradition of seeking to create social conditions that encourage human beings to realize their potential. Such a position depends, of course, on believing that human beings have potential. I frequently refer to thinkers such as John Stuart Mill in making that case.

Benkler's book

I came across a wonderful quote by Mill, which is used in the preface to Yochai Benkler's new book: The Wealth of Networks (ISBN 0-300-11056-1). I'll have more to say about Benkler's book, which I am just starting, in a later post, but here's the Mill quote:

“Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.”

“Such are the differences among human beings in their sources of plea- sure, their susceptibilities of pain, and the operation on them of differ- ent physical and moral agencies, that unless there is a corresponding di- versity in their modes of life, they neither obtain their fair share of happiness, nor grow up to the mental, moral, and aesthetic stature of which their nature is capable.”

John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)

If that isn't optimistic, I don't know what is.

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