How did John Stuart Mill connect freedom with controlling habits and temptations?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Free will and moral responsibility Immanuel Kant, print published in London, 1812.

John Stuart Mill defined freedom as a state in which an individual’s habits and temptations are not their masters, but rather the individual is master over them.1

In this view, Mill distinguished between free and unfree individuals based on their relationship with their own desires. A person is considered unfree if they act upon their desires even when they possess good reasons to refrain from doing so. By contrast, a free person is one whose internal desires are aligned with reason, allowing them to exercise control rather than being compelled by impulse. This perspective positions Mill as a significant figure in compatibilism, as he emphasizes that true freedom involves the capacity to govern one's own inclinations through the use of reason.1