Liberty vs. the State

Locke: only to protect natural rights. Rousseau: the individual is free precisely by participating in the general will. Mill: only to prevent harm to others — disapproval, paternalism, and tradition are illegitimate grounds. Marx: the liberal "freedom" is a sham as long as material domination persists. The argument is the engine of modern political philosophy, from John Stuart Mill to John Rawls to contemporary debates over speech, markets, and the welfare state.