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Episode details

Radio 4,12 Nov 2014,11 mins

Lawyer Harry Potter on Individual Freedom and the State

A History of Ideas

Available for over a year

Harry Potter is a criminal barrister and watches people being let off and locked up for a living. He is interested in the ways the state can curtail our liberty. His key thinker is John Stuart Mill, the 19th century British philosopher who argued that the state should take a minimal role in the lives of its citizens. Harry talks to Mark Dempster, ex-drug addict, dealer and now counsellor about the limits of individual liberty and to Prof. Philip Schofield of University College London about JS Mill and his ideas. This programme is part of a week of programmes looking at the history of ideas around Freedom.

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