原则的冲突:约翰·密尔的自由理论述评

约翰.密尔的《论自由》是西方思想史上捍卫自由的经典文献之一,它要解决的是个人自由与社会控制的关系问题,为此密尔提出了一个“伤害原则”,并在人类行为两分法的基础上,从“人类自由的适当领域”、“社会凌驾于个人权威的限度”以及如何将这一教义运用于实践三个方面构建起了他的自由理论。但是,密尔在具体的论证过程中并没有保持逻辑的一致性,其“伤害原则”与“功利原则”的冲突贯穿于他的自由理论的始终。

Conflict of Principles: Comment on John Mill's Theory of Freedom

Mill's On Liberty is one of the classical documents in the wastern history of idea for safeguarding freedom.It deals with the relation between personal freedom and social control.For this purpose Mill put forward a "harm principle".He established his theory of freedom on the basis of dichotomy of human behavior and in the three respects of "the proper scope of human freedom","the limits of society domineering individual authority" and the application of this doctrine to practice.But Mill failed to remain in its logical consistency.And the conflict between "harm principle" and "utility principle" runs through from beginning to end of his theory of freedom.