A Prussian on Liberty

Abstract

The conflicts between civil society and state that were discussed in the previous chapters were influential beyond their immediate political, spatial and chronological context. The conflicts in which urban Prussian successfully defended their freedom against state interference formed the background against which a young Wilhelm von Humboldt wrote his famous tract On the limits of state action that profoundly influenced the development of liberalism in the modern period. In particular John Stuart Mill was influenced by Humboldt writings but also other European liberals read Humboldt's work and incorporated his arguments in their own arguments. This chapter reconstructs the original historical context of Humboldt's arguments by placing it in the context of the debates that took place in the Prussian public in the second half of the eighteenth century and that have been explored in the preceding chapters. The chapter also place the influence of Humboldt's work in a European context of the development of liberal political thought.