Class notes
John Stuart Mill (
- Course
- Polt 14600
- Institution
- Ithaca College
Conversation on John Stuart Mill and his theory
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John Stuart Mill (1806-1873 )● Utilitarian – greater benefit of the greatest number
- Educated at home by James Mill and his godfather Jeremy Bentham.
- His education was a utilitarian experiment.
- Had a major nervous breakdown at 21.
- By his 20 he was one of the major intellectuals in England.
- He was an examiner of Indian dispatchers in East India Company.
- Known for his dedication to Harriot Taylor - All he thought equally belongs to her and she was his
intellectual superior. Very remarkable in that era, also remarkable for coming from the most
accomplished intellectual of his era.
● Mill’s’ understanding of liberty
- “The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle...That principle is, that the sole
end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of
action of any of their number, is self-protection. The only purpose for which power can be
rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm
to others....Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign” (On Liberty,
1859, pg. 13)
- Do whatever you want as long as you do not harm others
J.S. MILL’S DOCTRINE OF LIBERTY
● Mill specifies that the doctrine of liberty:
- Applies only to human beings in the maturity of their faculties (does not apply to children)
- Does not apply to “backward states of society” or “barbarians” for whom despotism is a legitimate
form of government
- Constitutes a utilitarian argument (liberty will ensure the greatest good for the greatest number),
but he is also interested in utility in its widest sense, meaning that liberty promotes the greatest
good for “mankind”
- Though the doctrine of liberty is not new, “there is no doctrine which stands more directly
opposed to the general tendency of existing opinion and practice ” (pg. 16).
THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN (1969)
- Was a result of a combination of passion and empirical social
science
- Liberal individualism as applied to women
- Legal subordination is wrong BOTH in itself AND hindrance to human improvement
- Goal = rational basis for women’s equality, demonstrating that it would be useful for society
- There is no basis to subjection in reason, and subjection at odds with efficient working of society
- Perceptions used to justify inequality are a product of habit NOT from women’s nature
- Method: empiricism + utilitarianism
- People had been substituting instinct for reason: do not think why women are oppressed
- No reason to assume that the way women appear reflects how they are or how they must be by
nature
- Subjection of women ultimately is a social institution
- Need empirical test of women’s equality, consistent with utilitarianism
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