Was J.S.Mill Right to Claim that Suppressing an Opinion is 'Robbing Mankind'

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Was J.S.Mill Right to Claim that Suppressing an Opinion is ‘Robbing Mankind’

John Stuart Mill asserted that by suppression of any opinion that mankind was being ‘robbed’.  He based this claim upon several different reasons.  The first was that when you suppress an opinion you are assuming that you are infallible which Mill claims is a very dangerous position to hold, Mill says that when an opinion is compelled to silence it may well be correct and so suppression of said opinion denies people of the opportunity to correct their own beliefs.  Another reason put forward is that even if the opinion silenced is incorrect almost all opinions contain some portion of truth within them, and the only way to truly progress one’s opinion towards overall truth is to take the different sections of truth from other opinions and use them to improve your own.  Thus even an incorrect opinion can be highly useful and should not be silenced.  Thirdly Mill pointed out that even if the prevailing opinion were completely correct when an opinion goes unchallenged and simply is accepted it often can become ‘dead dogma’, by which he meant that for most people it becomes simply a hollow phrase with no real meaning or feeling behind it.  Only through constant challenging of one’s beliefs, Mill claims, can the belief remain alive and keep its true meaning for people and only when this is true will people use the opinion to actually guide their actions.  Due to these three main reasons Mill claims that the suppression of any opinion be it correct or incorrect, is ‘robbing mankind’ of their chance to amend, change or reinforce their own opinions.

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One problem with this view is that whilst it does appear to be fairly comprehensive at first it paints a rather idealistic view of truth.  Mill’s argument assumes that there is an absolute external truth and that this is the ultimate aim of all opinion.  If there is no truth outside of our beliefs or opinions then his second reason for the non-suppression of opinions is not tenable, as one opinion cannot be ‘improved’ by incorporating the truth from another opinion.  In this case an opinion being suppressed does not ‘rob’ mankind, as it is not stealing from them ...

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