What Is John Stuart Mill's Harm Principle

If one who smokes cigarettes thinks it is okay to do so when they are by themselves that would be allowed because they are only harming themselves. However, if this person is smoking their cigarettes around others who do not smoke, resulting in them inhaling second hand smoke that person is allowed to be stopped. Requesting that person to refrain from smoking would be in compliance with the harm principle that John Stuart Mill abided by. a second party, or me because they are causing those people harm. John Stuart Mill believed in the harm principle. His harm principle is “That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others,” (On Liberty,
I believe that Russell would have agreed with Mill’s harm principle, for the simple fact that his political ideals were making an individual’s life better, by implementing that the force suppresses and silences an individual’s creative thinking if they witness force towards an individual. Russell has put the harm principle into his own words and believes that the force should only be used to stop people who want to use the it to harm others. Which is clearly what Mill’s harm principle is all about. Mill believes that the force should not coerce an individual’s mind by deceiving them, and Russell would agree with him, because Russell states that binding ones thoughts will hinder and “interfere with growth”(Political Ideals, 12). The interference of the growth with creates a timid thinking and reasoning among the people. Russell continues to demonstrate his concurrence when he states, “Direct preaching can do very little to change impulses, though it can lead people to restrain the direct expression of them,” (Political Ideals, 16-17). Mills would stand by his statement, because he believes that suppression from authority does more harm and convincing, and reasoning is better than shutting down someone’s opinion “even if the received opinion be not true,”(On Liberty,
The limit of the power of coercion is to protect an individual and their freedom to express their opinion. Also there should be a limit because if there was not the collective could have political despotism. Which would end up in complete suppression of an individual. Mill wants each individual to have freedom of speech and not feel like they should have to be silent because that is what the collective thinks. John Stuart Mill just wants each individual to feel like they can do what ever they like and not be harmed by others as long their actions are not harming others. This would go against what he is trying to achieve, which is liberty of each individual. Russell wants to achieve similar protection for the individual. He wants to protect the individual from anarchy from the government, and the government taking away the ability to have creative impulses. Also he wants to men to be rewarded for wisdom instead of wealth. The imbalance of the possessive ad creative need to be balanced or let creative be bigger than possession. All Russell wants to achieve is making sure that the force is only used for legitimate occasions and not against others to suppress their thoughts, and deceive them into thinking thoughts that were not originally theirs. He wants men to be able to share their creativity and not use their possessive impulses it away. Russell wants