Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-sh8wx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T12:33:22.574Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Utilitarianism and the Individual

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

D. H. Monro
D. H. Monro*
Affiliation:
Monash University
Get access

Extract

Can utilitarianism be reconciled with individualism? The short answer might be that Mill tried to reconcile them, and failed: the quite uncompromising individualism of On Liberty is commonly thought to be inconsistent with his utilitarianism. This is in part because of his rejection of paternalism, which seems to imply that spontaneity and freedom are more valuable than happiness. Mill himself argued that they are, at least in the long run and for the community as a whole, the surest means to happiness. But, while this is defensible, it is hard to see how it could be conclusively demonstrated; and it seems clear that Mill's belief that it is so is the result rather than the cause of his attachment to freedom. Moreover, Mill is, as Fitzjames Stephen pointed out, committed to the assertion that the suppression of opinion always, whatever the circumstances, has worse consequences than not suppressing it; and this seems much too sweeping a principle not to have some exceptions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary Volume , Volume 5: New Essays on John Stuart Mill and Utilitarianism , 1979 , pp. 47 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Stephen, J. F., Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (London, Smith Elder, 1873), p. 50.Google Scholar

2 Mill, J. S., Utilitarianism, Liberty and Representative Government (Everyman's Library, London, Dent, 1910), p. 58n.Google Scholar

3 Rescher, N., Distributive Justice (Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1966), p. 31.Google Scholar

4 Godwin, W., Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness, 3rd ed., 1798;Google Scholar Facsimile edition, ed. F. E. L. Priestley (University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1946), v. 1, p. 443.

5 Mill, op. cit., p. 10.

6 Mill, op. cit., p. 7.

7 Harrison, J.. “Utilitarianism, Universalisation and our Duty to be Just,“ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 53 (1952-53), 105-34;CrossRefGoogle ScholarUrmson, J. O., “The Interpretation of the Moral Philosophy of). S. Mill,” Philosophical Quarterly 3 (1953), 33-9;).CrossRefGoogle ScholarRawls, , “Two Concepts of Rules”, Philosophical Review 64 (1955), 3–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Berkeley, G., Works, ed. Luce, A. A. and Jessop, T. E., v. 6. (London, Nelson, 1953), p. 34.Google Scholar

9 Jenyns, Soame, A Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil, 3rd ed. (London, Dodsley, 1758), p. 85.Google Scholar

10 Smart, J. J. C., “Extreme and Restricted Utilitarianism,” Philosophical Quarterly, 6 (1956), 344-54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Berkeley, op. cit., p. 24.

12 Berkeley, op. cit., p. 23.

13 Berkeley, op. cit., p. 34.

14 Jenyns, op. cit., pp. 85-86.

15 Jenyns, op. cit., pp. 87-88.

16 Mill, op. cit., p. 58 n.

17 Rescher, op. cit., pp. 35-38.