Liberty and the Good Life

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Liberty and the Good Life

• John Stuart Mill on individuality, utility and
  the good life

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John Stuart Mill 1806-1873
Most Influential Writings On
Liberty Utilitarianism Considerations on
Representative Government Subjection
of Women
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The education of John Stuart Mill
I have no remembrance of the time when I began
to learn Greek. I have been told that it was when
I was three years old... I learnt no Latin until
my eighth year... My father, in all his teaching,
demanded of me not only the utmost that I could
do , but much that I could by no possibility have
done (Autobiography)
James Mill
Jeremy Bentham
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Benthams Utilitarianism

• Psychology Nature has placed mankind under two
  sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.
• Value Pleasure is the only thing good in itself
• The good life has a maximum of pleasure and a
  minimum of pain.
• Morality A right action or policy is one which
  results the greatest happiness for the greatest
  number.

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The Utilitarian Calculus
Intense, long, certain, speedy, fruitful, pure
Such marks in pleasures and in pains
endure.Such pleasures seek if private be thy
endIf it be public, wide let them extendSuch
pains avoid, whichever be thy viewIf pains must
come, let them extend to few.
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Mills Crisis
I put the question directly to myself Suppose
that all your objects in life were realized that
all the changes in institutions and opinions
which you are looking forward to , could be
completely effected at this very instant would
this be a great joy and happiness to you? And an
irrepressible self-consciousness distinctly
answered, No! At this my heart sank within me
the whole foundation on which my life was
constructed fell down... I seemed to have nothing
left to live for (Autobiography).
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Mills Lessons
I never wavered in the conviction that happiness
is the test of all rules of conduct, and the end
of life. But I now thought that this end was only
to be obtained by not making it the direct end.
Those only are happy (I thought) who have their
minds fixed on some object other than their own
happiness on the happiness of others, on the
improvement of mankind, even on some art or
pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself
an ideal end (Autobiography).
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Bernard Williams For and Against Utilitarianism
The point is that the agent is identified with
his action flowing from projects or attitudes...
It is absurd to demand of such a man, when the
sums come in from the utility network which the
projects of others have in part determined, that
he should just step aside from his own project
and decision and acknowledge the decision which
utilitarian calculation requires. It is to
alienate him in a real sense from his actions and
the source of his action in his own convictions.
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Suppose you had to choose to rescue from a
burning building either your mother or a great
man who could contribute much to human happiness.
William Godwin argued that impartial rationality
tells you to rescue the great man What magic is
there in the pronoun my that should justify us
in overturning the decision of impartial truth.
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The great majority of good actions are intended
not for the benefit of the world, but for that of
individuals, of which the good of the world is
made up and the thoughts of the most virtuous
man need not on these occasions travel beyond the
particular persons concerned, except so far as is
necessary to assure himself that in benefiting
them he is not violating the rights, that is, the
legitimate and authorised expectations, of any
one else.
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The other important change which my opinions at
this time underwent, was that I, for the first
time, gave its proper place, among the prime
necessities of human well-being, to the internal
culture of the individual...The maintenance of a
due balance among the faculties, now seemed to me
of primary importance. The cultivation of the
feelings became one of the cardinal points in my
ethical and philosophical creed (Autobiography).
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Enlightenment Rationality versus 19th Century
Romanticism
Enlightenment Rationality Combated superstition
advocated progress through use of reason. Valued
order and civilization. Romanticism Emphasized
importance of emotions, creativity and
individuality. Valued naturalness and spontaneity.
James Mill
Samuel Coleridge
Jeremy Bentham
William Wordsworth
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Bentham on Utility
The utility of all these arts and sciences,the
value which they possess, is exactly in
proportion to the pleasure they yield.
Every other species of preeminence which may be
attempted to be established among them is
altogether fanciful. Prejudice apart, the game of
push-pin is of equal value with the arts and
sciences of music and poetry. If the game of
push-pin furnish more pleasure, it is more
valuable than either.
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The game of push-pin is always innocent it were
well could the same be always asserted of poetry.
Indeed, between poetry and truth there is natural
opposition false morals and fictitious nature.
The poet always stands in need of something
false. His business consist in stimulating our
passions, and exciting our prejudices. Truth,
exactitude of every kind is fatal to poetry. The
poet must see everything through coloured media,
and strive to make every one else do the same.
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Mills Moral Psychology

• Pleasure should be measured by its quality as
  well as quantity.
• The quality of pleasure we get from poetry cannot
  be separated from its other properties. It is
  intrinsic to our experience of poetry.
• Poetry is valuable for its own sake.
• The pleasure involved in the activity or reading
  poetry is superior to the pleasures associated
  with pushpin.

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It is quite compatible with the principle of
utility to recognize the fact that some kinds of
pleasure are more desirable and valuable than
others. It is better to be a human dissatisfied
than a pig satisfied better to be Socrates
dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the
fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it
is because they only know their own side of the
question. The other party to the comparison knows
both sides
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How to Compare Pleasures
If I am asked what makes one pleasure more
valuable than another, merely as a pleasure,
except its being greater in amount, there is but
one possible answer. Of two pleasures, if there
be one to which all or almost all who have
experience of both give a decided preference,
irrespective of any feeling of moral obligation
to prefer it, that is the more desirable
pleasure.
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When people who are tolerably fortunate in their
outward lot do not find in life sufficient
enjoyment to make it valuable to them, the cause
generally is, caring for nobody but themselves...
Next to selfishness, the principal cause which
makes life unsatisfactory, is want of mental
cultivation (Utilitarianism).
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Mills Principle
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. His own good, either
physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.
He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or
forbear because it will be better for him to do
so, because it will make him happier, because, in
the opinions of others, to do so would be wise,
or even right (On Liberty, I).
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The Utility of Free Speech
However unwillingly a person who has a strong
opinion may admit the possibility that his
opinion may be false, he ought to be moved by the
consideration that however true it may be, if it
is not fully, frequently, and fearlessly
discussed, it will be held as a dead dogma, not a
living truth (On Liberty, II).
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Liberty and Progress
The despotism of custom is everywhere the
standing hindrance to human advancement, being in
unceasing antagonism to that disposition to aim
at something better than customary, which is
called, according to circumstances, the spirit of
liberty, or that of progress or improvement (On
Liberty, III).
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There are but few persons, in comparison with
the whole of mankind, whose experiments, if
adopted by others, would be likely to be any
improvement on established practice. But these
few are the salt of the earth without them,
human life would become a stagnant pool.
The initiation of all wise or noble things,
comes and must come from individuals generally
at first from some one individual. The honor and
glory of the average man is that he is capable of
following that initiative that he can respond
internally to wise and noble things, and be led
to them with his eyes open.
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Importance of Self-Expression
The human faculties of perception, judgment,
discriminative feeling, mental activity, and even
moral preference, are exercised only in making a
choice. He who does anything because it is the
custom, makes no choice. He gains no practice
either in discerning or in desiring what is best.
The mental and moral, like the muscular powers,
are improved only by being used.
A person whose desires and impulses are his
ownare the expression of his own nature, as it
has been developed and modified by his own
cultureis said to have a character. One whose
desires and impulses are not his own, has no
character, no more than a steam-engine has a
character.
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Self-expression and Individual Happiness
Human beings are not like sheep and even sheep
are not undistinguishably alike. A man cannot get
a coat or a pair of boots to fit him, unless they
are either made to his measure, or he has a whole
warehouseful to choose from and is it easier to
fit him with a life than with a coat, or are
human beings more like one another in their whole
physical and spiritual conformation than in the
shape of their feet?
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Self-expression and the Common Good
In proportion to the development of his
individuality, each person becomes more valuable
to himself, and is therefore capable of being
more valuable to others.
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If it may be possible to doubt whether a noble
character is always the happier for its
nobleness, there can be no doubt that it makes
other people happier, and that the world in
general is immensely a gainer by it.
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Self-expression and the Good Society

• A good society gives individuals as much freedom
  as possible to express themselves.
• However, it must ensure that individuals have a
  good education and sufficient resources to make
  meaningful choices about their lives.