John Stuart Mill on Liberty In John Stuart Mill's brilliant 19th Century essay "On Liberty" he states that "the worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it." What Mills is purporting in that statement is that the Continue Reading...
Political Philosophy II: Theories of Freedom John Stuart Mill's On Liberty is one of the foundational defenses of liberal, democratic government. According to Mill, there are certain core principles "that should regulate how governments and Continue Reading...
John Stuart Mill's concept of liberty professes to be liberal but ends up with a distinctly 'non-liberal' feel when analysing the details. This paper endeavours to define exactly what Mills' notion of liberty is and how it should be regulated by stud Continue Reading...
Moreover, how does he justify saying one would rather be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool who is satisfied? His point is obvious - it is better to have brains and not achieve happiness than be dumb and be contented. But Socrates, brilliant as he wa Continue Reading...
Unfortunately, we have had no more success at finding that limit than Mill did, for what we see all around us today is that very same "political despotism" of which Mill speaks with trepidation. Mill writes that it is the "majority" who makes "the Continue Reading...
Personal usefulness or utility is not required to clash with public usefulness. Usefulness or Utility is often misguided for pragmatism. but, pragmatism is the affinity to encourage certain preferred objective, regardless of the consideration betwee Continue Reading...
Liberty, by John Stuart Mill [...] how John Stuart Mill would view the issue of pornography. Pornography has been argued by many feminists and advocates for women's rights to be pernicious to women because it eroticizes and promotes relationships of Continue Reading...
It is only then that true liberty has taken place as it has provided a forum and a backdrop for examination of all sides in an issue and given all parties the chance to determine if they still believe in what they stood for (Mills). According to th Continue Reading...
Plato and John Stuart Mill Glaucon's challenge to Socrates at the beginning of Book II of Plato's Republic is to clarify in what sense justice is a human "good." Glaucon begins by separating goods into three categories: those which are harmless plea Continue Reading...
For Singer, the human community must receive justice, not simply a society setting its own local standards of morality and justice, as in Mill's argument. For Singer there are no 'imperfect' obligations, rather all obligations are absolute. Someone Continue Reading...
This is an example of how American politics and the American legal system have pre-empted any sort of social discussion or values creation, and the values creation came after the law was enacted. This is from a purely non-religious standpoint, as m Continue Reading...
Freedom, Liberty, And Authority Thomas Jefferson is attributed as saying "the price for freedom is constant vigilance." Only those who are willing to stake there reputation, their personal well being, their fortunes and their futures on the pursuit Continue Reading...
Every act happens at some time and in some place, and in like manner every act that we do either does or may affect both ourselves and others." Still others try to rebuff these objections, clarifying self-regarding acts and other-regarding acts. Continue Reading...
Mill talked of ethical freedom in terms of all areas wherein individual and society interacts and become involved with each other; Marx utilized the same viewpoint, although specified it in terms of proletarian-bourgeoisie relations. For Marx, ethi Continue Reading...
Mill, Kant, And Torture An Analysis of the Utilitarian and Kantian Arguments for and against Torture Alan Dershowitz expresses moral approval (with reservations) in his essay "Should the Ticking Time Bomb Terrorist be Tortured?" Dershowitz's argume Continue Reading...
In other words De Beauvoir sees the opportunity of secretary, shop girl, teacher, or nurse as wholly unlikely to offer women a real sense of independence and will likely continue to be treated as temporary positions held until the woman is married, Continue Reading...
Mills Arguements Intrinsic Value of Liberty There can be very few doubts as to the importance of liberty to the philosophical espousing of John Stuart Mill, who even authored a treatise entitled On Liberty to underscore the amount of emphasis he pl Continue Reading...
For him, it is also important to know that liberty, while dependent on the individual's decision alone, should also take into account the consequences that will come out upon the accomplishment of an action. That is, it is vital that the individual Continue Reading...
To cultivate genius when it does appear, a society must be free for all, not just the recognized geniuses. or, as Mill more eloquently puts it, "it is necessary to preserve the soil in which they [geniuses] grow. Genius can only breathe freely in an Continue Reading...
Mill, Kant, Religion, And Gay Marriage In theory, freedom and liberty for all appears to be an excellent concept, one which nearly everyone would embrace. However, the practice of this ideology is not always as halcyon as its theoretical mandate. Qu Continue Reading...
John Rawls' theory…. In his book A Theory of Justice John Rawls offers readers a "Kantian Interpretation" of his "original position," according to an essay in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SAP). First, a review of Rawls' "original po Continue Reading...
As Hampton (1997) points out, "By using this argument, Rawls hopes to persuade readers that he has good reasons for commending his theory as correct, without relying on undefended or ill-defined intuitions" (p. 140). But is his theory really "corre Continue Reading...
Liberty We are living in a new era, an era of global power and global vulnerability. In response to the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, and the recognition that we are facing a worldwide network of terrorists whose singular goal is to harm th Continue Reading...
Mill and U.S. Constitution None of the issues being raised today by the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement are new, but rather they date back to the very beginning of the United States. At the time the Constitution was written in 1787, human rights a Continue Reading...
Mill and Wilson Attempting to find any common ground between the moral and political philosophies of John Stuart Mill and Edward O. Wilson seems futile, given that their ideas are based on extremely different premises and assumptions. Wilson was a D Continue Reading...
America took the notion of liberty and placed it in an economical framework, composed by Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations. Smith anticipated Marx by nearly a century when he focused on the nature of man and society in what amounted to a purely econo Continue Reading...
Plato and Utilitarians Plato and the Utilitarians do not conceive of the good life in the same manner. Plato, through the character of Socrates, teaches that the true good life can only be attained by dedicating oneself to the pursuit of the one, th Continue Reading...
Liberty, Mills approaches the issue of governmental and societal tyranny. He approaches three basic areas in which liberty in important, in addition to discussing the problem of tyranny which can abridge those liberties. In this work Mill provides a Continue Reading...
All the moralities tell them that it is the duty of women, and all the current sentimentalities that it is their nature, to live for others; to make complete abnegation of themselves, and to have no life but in their affections. This passage reflec Continue Reading...
Utilitarianism, a philosophy first espoused by Jeremy Bentham, embodies an important set of concepts in that it coincided with the re-thinking of what we know as liberalism. The liberalism of the early 19th century was a product of classical economic Continue Reading...
John Stuart Mill suggested in his famous work on Liberty (1859) that human freedom in society should be absolute to the extent an individual's desired conduct does not harm other individuals. Experts in philosophy (Taylor, 1980) consider the follow Continue Reading...
Mills on Liberty John Stuart Mill's on Liberty To whom does Mill's principle of liberty apply? To whom does it NOT apply? Mill justifies the liberty principle according to "the permanent interests of man as a progressive being" (On Liberty, p. 4). Continue Reading...
PaternalismPaternalism is about limiting the rights of people forcefully. It includes stopping them from voicing their concerns and fears as well as suppressing their subordinates with coercion in any form (Goldman and Goldman 65). In his book On Lib Continue Reading...
Therefore, the person who chooses to suspend his interests to comply with those artificial externally-imposed social values for the benefit of others will ultimately always suffer disadvantage because others cannot be counted upon to do so consisten Continue Reading...
Utilitarianism and Deontology John Stuart Mill's theory of Utilitarianism and Immanuel Kant's Deontological theory approach the question of ethics from diametrically opposite points-of-view: "Consequentialist theories...try to ground moral judgments Continue Reading...
Mill agrees that the mischief a person does to himself can affect others, and he finds that it is right to bring to bear moral disapprobation, Whenever there is a definite damage, the case moves out of the province of liberty and into that of moral Continue Reading...
John Stuart Mill and the idea of equality Society typically views the triad nexus of politicians, bureaucracies and the financial elite suspiciously, believing they breach the common man’s rights, and, consequently, strives to ensure they beha Continue Reading...
