On Liberty
E13841
On Liberty is a foundational 1859 philosophical essay by John Stuart Mill that defends individual freedom and limits on state and social authority.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| On Liberty canonical | 10 |
| Chapter II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T124344 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On Liberty Context triple: [John Stuart Mill, notableWork, On Liberty]
-
A.
The Social Contract
The Social Contract is a seminal 1762 political philosophy treatise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau that argues legitimate government is based on a collective agreement formed by the general will of the people.
-
B.
The Spirit of the Laws
The Spirit of the Laws is a foundational 1748 political treatise by Montesquieu that systematically analyzes forms of government and famously articulates the doctrine of separation of powers.
-
C.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table is a series of humorous and reflective conversational essays by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in the 1850s.
-
D.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America is a three-volume political treatise by John Adams that analyzes historical republics to justify and defend the proposed American system of separated powers and mixed government.
-
E.
Tractatus Politicus
Tractatus Politicus is a posthumously published political treatise by philosopher Baruch Spinoza that analyzes the nature of political authority and proposes a rational, secular foundation for the state.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On Liberty Target entity description: On Liberty is a foundational 1859 philosophical essay by John Stuart Mill that defends individual freedom and limits on state and social authority.
-
A.
The Social Contract
The Social Contract is a seminal 1762 political philosophy treatise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau that argues legitimate government is based on a collective agreement formed by the general will of the people.
-
B.
The Spirit of the Laws
The Spirit of the Laws is a foundational 1748 political treatise by Montesquieu that systematically analyzes forms of government and famously articulates the doctrine of separation of powers.
-
C.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table is a series of humorous and reflective conversational essays by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in the 1850s.
-
D.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America is a three-volume political treatise by John Adams that analyzes historical republics to justify and defend the proposed American system of separated powers and mixed government.
-
E.
Tractatus Politicus
Tractatus Politicus is a posthumously published political treatise by philosopher Baruch Spinoza that analyzes the nature of political authority and proposes a rational, secular foundation for the state.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
philosophical essay ⓘ |
| author | John Stuart Mill ⓘ |
| centralConcept |
freedom of expression
ⓘ
harm principle ⓘ individuality ⓘ other-regarding actions ⓘ self-regarding actions ⓘ tyranny of the majority ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| field |
ethics
ⓘ
political philosophy ⓘ social philosophy ⓘ |
| genre |
moral philosophy
ⓘ
political philosophy ⓘ |
| hasPart |
Chapter I: Introductory
ⓘ
On Liberty self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Chapter II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion
Chapter III: Of Individuality, as One of the Elements of Well-Being ⓘ Chapter IV: Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over the Individual ⓘ Chapter V: Applications ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
limits of social authority
ⓘ
moral and social progress ⓘ protection of minority opinions ⓘ relationship between individual and society ⓘ tolerance of dissent ⓘ |
| influenced |
Friedrich Hayek
ⓘ
Isaiah Berlin ⓘ John Rawls ⓘ free speech jurisprudence ⓘ modern liberal political theory ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Jeremy Bentham
ⓘ
utilitarian ethics ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
freedom of speech
ⓘ
harm principle ⓘ individual liberty ⓘ liberalism ⓘ limits of state authority ⓘ |
| notableQuote |
If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
ⓘ
Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign. ⓘ |
| philosophicalArgument | society may restrict individual liberty only to prevent harm to others ⓘ |
| philosophicalSchool |
classical liberalism
ⓘ
utilitarianism ⓘ |
| placeOfPublication |
London, England
ⓘ
surface form:
London
|
| publicationYear | 1859 ⓘ |
| publisher | John W. Parker and Son ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 19th century ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: On Liberty Description of subject: On Liberty is a foundational 1859 philosophical essay by John Stuart Mill that defends individual freedom and limits on state and social authority.
Referenced by (11)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Chapter II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion
subject surface form:
John Stuart Mill
subject surface form:
John Stuart Mill