Mill’s Power over Body vs. Foucault’s Freedom Essay

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John Stuart Mill’s view of sovereignty over the mind and the body focuses on the tendency of human beings to exercise liberalism to fulfill their self-interest. Mill’s notion holds that human beings have great desires for better accomplishment of their own good than the good of others. Therefore, there exists competition amongst individuals in their endeavor to fulfill personal wellbeing. According to Mill, human beings are naturally rational and egocentric. They usually compete as they attempt to seek liberation. In his theory, Mill advances that individuals exercise whatever means to seek self-protection against physical, moral, and/or religious coercion. However, the notion asserts that a person’s sovereignty finds its rightfulness only when it is used to defend oneself against ruin. Similarly, the theory warrants individuals to exercise their powers against the will of others to avert any probable destruction. Bishop posits that human beings are the ‘kings’ of their own (9). Hence, they bear the right to decide what they need to do with their bodies and minds (Bishop 9). In other words, individuals have autonomous freedom to choose and pursue their own actions provided they do not intrude on the sovereignty of other people.

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In comparison, Michael Foucault’s impression of freedom resonates with Mill’s notion since he elucidates various formal, carnal, organizational, and informational structures that enhance the execution of autonomous authority within the societal setting. The philosopher supports that individuals have intrinsic self-will that enables them to choose their route of action to accomplish their self-centeredness (Tobias 66). Foucault’s perspective of freedom suggests that sovereignty over ourselves provides us with power that serves to initiate motivation to execute behaviors of our own choice in society. According to Tobias, Foucault’s notion majorly focuses on political thought and its connotation on individuals’ decisions to exercise sovereignty over their bodies.

Nevertheless, Foucault’s view is somewhat pessimistic about positive freedom. Unlike Mill’s opinion of power over the body and mind, Foucault mainly backs negative space, where he explains that human beings are less free than they perceive. His theorization that individuals acquire autonomous powers to initiate a particular set of behaviors makes humans less free beings whose sovereign discipline governs their intrinsic ability. In reality, this kind of intellectuality generates disproportional power relationships to exercise absolute sovereignty over the mind and body (Tobias 81). With this hint in mind, Foucault’s conception disavows the construct that individuals possess unconditional freedom to influence the decisions of their autonomous mental faculties. Consequently, his belief differs from Mill’s idea since it places limitations on the exercise of sovereign power over the body and mind of individuals.

Works Cited

Bishop, Schuyler. Three theories of individualism: Graduate Theses and Dissertations, 2007. PDF file. Web.

Tobias, Saul. “Foucault on Freedom and Capabilities.” Theory, Culture & Society 22.4(2005): 65-85. Print.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Mill's Power over Body vs. Foucault's Freedom." January 25, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/mills-power-over-body-vs-foucaults-freedom/.

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IvyPanda. "Mill's Power over Body vs. Foucault's Freedom." January 25, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/mills-power-over-body-vs-foucaults-freedom/.

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