John Stuart Mill was a Victorian radical. I love it. He was like the first male feminist or something, which is really cool. He advocated sexual equality, divorce rights, and free speech to name a few. He doesn't write so much in poetry form as much as prose or free verse. He is more of a philosophical mind, questioning his generation, pushing for progress.
His piece from chapter 2 from On Liberty is basically thoughts on how man is different from every other creature on earth. Man is special because "either as an intellectual or as a moral being, namely that his errors are corrigible" 516. Man is a special being because he has the ability to correct his mistakes through "discussion and experience". Mill believes that it must be both, it cannot be an either or situation. You must discuss the situation to create growth. Discussion gives experience interpretation, says Mill. Mill thinks that thought people lack faith, but are terrified to be sceptical of any thought. Free thought is justified because it causes thought to be true or untrue. Either way, things can be learned from thought. Freedom of speech is necessary to the mental well being of society.
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Nicole,
Good comments and remarks on Mill. I am glad you liked him--he is one of my favorites, too. In this post you mostly seem to summarize his points, but I wish you had provided more analysis of specific statements by Mill (you don't really get to that until near the end).
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