Collected here in a single volume for the first time, On Liberty, Utilitarianism, Considerations on Representative Government , and The Subjection of Women show Mill applying his liberal utilitarian philosophy to a range of issues that remain vital today - issues of the nature of ethics, the scope and limits of individual liberty, the merits of and costs of democratic government, and the place of women in society.

In his Introduction John Gray describes these essays as applications of Mill`s doctrine of the Art of Life, as set out in A System of Logic . Using the resources of recent revisionist scholarship, he shows Mill`s work to be far richer and subtler than traditional interpretations allow.