Adam Gopnik: A Thousand Small Sanities
● Mill was in love with his most important teacher Hariet Taylor
○ Smartest person he had ever met and greatest influence on his work
○ Fell in love while she was still married; decided that Mill and her former husband
would “share” her
● Others who edited his work complained that he vastly over exaggerated Taylor’s role and
influence in Mill’s life/work
○ Younger scholars disagree, claiming that her role in modern liberalism seems as
large as it was made out to be
● Subjection of Women
○ Published after Taylor’s death, but had lots of her ideas
○ Mill and Taylor did not want to show that women would be happier if they were
freer but that any restraint on a woman’s freedom is unjust
■ What grounds do we have thinking that any part of a woman should be
unfree?
■ No one can possibly know what women are not good at because their
opportunity has been so small in comparison to their oppression
○ Argues against the idea that women have no talent for the fine arts
■ Points to theater where they are allowed to participate, and shows that
they perform just as well as men and this is something everyone agrees
with
○ This work was a modern piece that changed lives
■ Before this women were comparable to chattel
■ After, they sooner or later had to be recognized as citizens
● After Harriet Taylor died
○ Mill had a monument made for her
○ At the time of her death, the ideas that Mill and Taylor had together were nothing
more than a “crazy fantasy”
■ They were truly some of the first to believe in the evil of slavery
● Mill and Taylor
○ Romantic realists
■ Understood that change for women would be slow but were happy about
this because they knew that without public debate, women’s
emancipations would never be fully owned or accepted by men or women
○ Understood that they were not perfect
■ Harriet stayed with her first husband, nursed him while he was dying, and
then married Mill when he passed
● Important takeaways
○ True liberty for Mill meant love
■ What we want liberty for is the power to connect with others as we choose
○ Liberalism is our common practice of connection turned into a principle of
pluralism
○ Rhino v unicorn
■ The rhino is the perfect symbol of liberalism
, ● No living thing is ideal
● The rhino is ugly and imperfect, but it is real
■ The unicorn is not real but it is perfect and ideal
● People treat the unicorn as the rhino with no flaws
● But it is not real and it is not achievable
■ Most political visions are unicorns, but liberalism is a rhino
○ Liberalism ends in the center
■ Liberals recognize that there are so many selves in a society that must be
accommodated that you cannot expect them to congregrate in a single
neighborhood at one end of the city; the meeting point is placed in the
center of the town because everyone can get there
● The agora
Kwame Appiah: Experiments in Ethics
● Sartor Restartus
James Surowiecki: The Wisdom of Crowds
● National Issues Convention Poll (deliberative polls)
○ Created by James Fishkin
○ Created out of frustration with the current polling system
■ Fishkin felt that it was limiting and did not give Americans enough
information or the ability to make intelligent political choices
○ Very optimistic
■ Faith in both informed debate and ability of ordinary people to govern
themselves
○ Better representation of what American voters really think about issues
● Idea behind deliberative polls
○ Political debate should not be confined to experts and policy elites
■ When citizens are given enough information and the ability to talk things
over with others, they are just as capable of understanding and making
informed political decisions
○ Americans are increasingly isolated from each other and the political system
■ Public debate is becomming less informative
■ Idea of public good is losing to private interest
● Deliberation Day
○ National holiday 2 weeks before election day
■ Registered voters would gather in their neighborhoods and discuss major
issues at stake in the campaign
■ Citizens who participated and then voted would be paid $150
■ This is a way to reengage Americans with civic life and give them the
change to voice their opinion while also learning about the issues
, ○ Fishkin understands that this is a very utopian idea
■ Feels that something drastic needs to be done in order to save
democracy
● Criticisms of “deliberative democracy”
○ Rests on a unrealistic conception that people are civic-minded
○ Establishes deliberation as almost magical
○ Even if people are intelligent/educated enough to debate political matters, it is not
certain that people will want to, or will want to be told to take a holiday to do so
● What voters think democracy is
○ Most voters start with the idea that every voter, including themself, is acting in a
self-interested way
■ Voters want to elect candidates who will act in a way to protect their own
self-interest
● Generally less concerned about candidates who care about the
well-being of the country as a whole
○ Most politicians want to be reelected
■ Campaign in a way that appeals to individuals; they vote in a way that will
help them achieve that, and not in a way that they think is best for the
nation
○ Markets, at least in part, work by harnessing individuals’ pursuit of their own
self-interest
○ But self-interest deos not determine voters’ decisions
■ Yes it plays a role
■ People vote because they think they should, even if it has virtually zero
effect on them
● Want to have a say in how their government is run
● There is no true correlation between self-interest and voting behavior
○ Most americans are not wealthy and will never be
■ Have shown little to no interest in raising taxes on wealthyーvoting in a
self interested way
○ There has been little connection between how voters say they are doing and their
voting patterns
■ Correlation between how the voters said the economy was doing and
their votes
○ Ideology plays a bigger role in voting than self-interest
○ Many signs point to the idea that voters are picking the best man for the job, not
the best man for themselves
● How little American voters actually know
○ In a representative democracy
■ Question is not: is it plausible that American voters will make sensible
policy choices?
■ Instead question is: are Americans likely to pick candidates who will make
the right decision?
● On these terms, it seems more plausible that they are
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller liesltheresemartin. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $10.49. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
