Improving Society: Mill’s On Liberty and Marx’s Communist Manifesto

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Society is built and run on social and moral obligations and while these two are closely related, both impact cultures around the world in different ways. Marx’s Communist Manifesto and Mill’s On Liberty demonstrate the relationship these obligations have with successful and unsuccessful social constructs. For the purposes of this paper, a moral obligation is a consideration of what is right¬¬¬ and wrong and can vary depending on pressures from external sources such as religion, while a social obligation is a responsibility the individual has to act to benefit the best interests of their class as well as supporting the stability between society and the individual. Marx and Mill differ greatly in their opinions on the role and effects of both moral and social obligation, with Marx claiming that social obligation is one’s responsibility to one’s class and Mill claiming that it is one’s responsibility to further the society by expressing one’s own ideas because doing so is key to preventing society from becoming stagnant. Both authors also have differing views on moral obligation since Marx also claims that morality as a whole is a social construction used to oppress the Proletariat and that it is therefore invalid, whereas Mill claims that moral obligation is one’s debt to oneself to express their opinion, since not doing so would leave one’s character undeveloped.
In relation to social obligations and advancement of society, Mill writes advocating the expression of one’s opinion as the main driving force. Mill states, “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 sile...

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... that it is one’s responsibility to further the society as a whole by expressing one’s own ideas because doing so is key to preventing society from stagnating and becoming stale. Both authors also have differing views on the role of moral obligation since Marx also claims that morality as a whole is created by the Bourgeoisie to oppress the Proletariat and that it is therefore invalid, whereas Mill claims that moral obligation is one’s self owed debt to express one’s opinion, regardless of the society’s view on it, since not expressing one’s opinion would leave one’s character undeveloped. Despite their differences in view on the content of social and moral obligation, both authors agree on the point that everyone is ultimately responsible for their own decisions, and insofar as these decisions affect others, they are also responsible for the state of their society.

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