First published in 1974. As logician, economist, political theorist, practical politician and active champion of social freedom, John Stuart Mill is a figure of continuing importance. In this book the author does full justice to the range of Mill’s achievements, providing an introductory guide to his most important and best known writings including Autobiography, A System of Logic, Utilitarianism, Liberty, and The Subjugation of Women. In their treatment of his works, the author seeks to emphasise Mill’s approach to those issues — education, the conflict between social order and individual freedom, the unresolved state of the social sciences, rights and duties of citizens in a democratic state — which remain most alive to us today. At the same time Mill is seen as part of his own age, responding to the anxieties that beset his contemporaries. This book will be of interest to students of politics and philosophy.
Author(s): Alan Ryan
Series: Routledge Revivals
Publisher: Routledge & Kegan Paul
Year: 2018
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Original Title Page
Original Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Difficulties of the history of ideas
1 The Autobiography 1806-1826
An educative autobiography
The Early Draft
Utilitarianism and education
James Mill’s syllabus
Mill and Dickens
Youthful Benthamism
2 The Autobiography 1826-1840
‘Mental Crisis’
Its impact on Mill’s ideas
Doubts about utilitarianism
‘The Spirit of the Age’
Disillusionment with radicalism
Harriet Taylor
Mill’s literary criticism
‘Bentham’ and ‘Coleridge’
3 A System of Logic
Intuitionists and conservatives
Analysis of meaning
Mathematical truth
The syllogism
Causation
Induction and its canons
Free-will and social science
False starts
Sociology
4 Utilitarianism
Its notoriety
Mill’s audience
Theological ethics
Intuitionist ethics
A logic of the imperative mood
The Art of Life
Utilitarianism
The need for first principles
Clarifications of the doctrine
Motives and intentions
Sanctions
The ‘proof’ of the principle of utility
Utility and justice
5 Liberty and the Subjection of Women
Harriet’s legacy
Elitism of Liberty
Truth or truths
Freedom and happiness
Liberty and its aims
Free inquiry and science
Religious freedom
Individuality in mass society
Duty and virtue
Paternalism
Saints and heroes
Mill’s successors
Extending interferences
Women’s liberation
6 The Principles of Political Economy
The interest of Mill’s economics
Methodological views
Distribution and property
Wages, unionism and population
The role of government
Education
Poor relief, colonies and public utilities
The stationary state
Mill’s critique of socialism
7 Representative Government
Mill’s changing attitude to democracy
The East India Company and bureaucracy
Progress and political institutions
The defence of democratic politics
Mill’s neglect of party politics
The role of expertise
Minorities and their representation
Plural voting
The ballot
Nationalism
Mill and ‘democratic revisionism’
8 Hamilton, Comte and Religion
Background of Mill’s later work
Matter
Mind
‘To hell I will go’
Comte’s philosophy of science
Comte’s illiberalism
The religion of humanity
‘The Utility of Religion’
‘Nature’
‘Theism’
Notes
Bibliography
Index
