Philosophy 780: The Moral and Political Philosophy of J. S. Mill

Professor Daniel Jacobson

E-mail: djacob@bgnet.bgsu.edu

John Stuart Mill was not only one of the most important philosophers of the 19th century, he was also an extremely important political figure in England. As one of the "Philosophic Radicals," he advanced a variety of political programs associated with classical liberalism: expanded suffrage, freedom of conscience, free trade, and democratic reform. Yet he is most famous for his advocacy of utilitarianism, the ethical theory that evaluates acts by the happiness and unhappiness they produce. The central problem in Mill scholarship is how to make consistent his advocacy of a principle of liberty (in On Liberty) and the theory of utility (in Utilitarianism). We will engage this problem, but we will also read some less familiar works of Mill and question some of the presuppositions of this interpretive problem. In particular, it has recently been suggested by at least one Mill scholar (myself) that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, Utilitarianism was never intended by Mill to specify his own moral theory. But this provocative claim raises as many questions as it answers, and it remains possible that this suggestion is not a crucial insight into Mill's views but the misguided raving of a contrarian crank.