  A much-discussed issue about beneficence descends historically from Mill’s On Liberty, where Mill inquired into the nature and limits of justifiable social control over the individual. He argues that the measure of a person’s liberty—or personal autonomy—is the measure of the person’s independence from influences that control the person’s preferences, thoughts, and behavior. Various principles commonly assumed to be moral principles have been advanced to justify the limitation of individual liberties. Joel Feinberg, who was philosophically close to various of Mill’s views, appropriately called these principles “liberty-limiting principles.” Mill defended the view that only one principle validly limits liberty. Feinberg called it the harm principle: A person’s liberty (or autonomy) is justifiably restricted to prevent harm to others caused by that person. Feinberg agreed with Mill that the principle of paternalism, which renders acceptable certain acts intended to benefit another person when the other does not prefer to receive the benefit, is not a morally acceptable liberty-limiting principle.