JOHN STUART MILL

PRESENTATION BY DR RUTUJA HOLKAR

 INTRODUCTION

JOHN STUART MILL WAS AGREAT EXPONENT

OF INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY AND
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY.

HE WAS BRITISH PHILOSOPHER,A POLITICAL

ECONOMIST AND A SOCIAL REFORMER WHO
HAD A HUGE IMPACT ON 19th CENTURY.
 JAMES MILL
HE WAS A FATHER OF J.S MILL WHO TOOK GREAT AFFORD FOR WELL NURCHED CHILDHOOD
HIS SON.HE WASWELL-KNOWN HISTORIAN,AN ECONOMIST AND A UTILITARIAN THINKER.
 MILL’S LITERALLY WORK

SYSTEM OF LOGIC(1843)

PRINCPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY(1848)

ON LIBERTY(1859)

CONSIDERATIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT(1861)

THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN(1869)

 HARRIET TAYLOR

HARRIET WAS J.S.MILL’S WIFE.J.S.MILL REFFERED HER AS HIS

BIGGEST INFLUENCE AND AS A MORE INTELLIGENT THINKER.
HE CREDITED HER FOR INSPIRING HIS SPONTANEITY AND
ORIGIONAL THOUGHTS IN HIS LIFE AND WRITING.
HE BECAME ADVOCATE FOR ISSUES OF HER INTEREST,SUCH
AS BIRTH CONTROL AND WOMENS’S RIGHTS.
 JERMY BENTHAM

JERMY BENTHAM WAS

J.S.MILL WAS BENTHEM’S
RADICAL UTILITARIAN
STUDENT.
THINKER.
 THE CHAMPION OF LIBERTY

HIS VIEWS REGARDING

J.S.MILL IS UNIVERSALLY LIBERTY ARE EXPRESSED IN THIS BOOK HAS BECOME A
REGARDED AS THE HIS BOOK”ON LIBERTY” CLASSIC OF LIBERAL
CHAMPION OF LIBERTY. WHICH WAS PUBLISHED IN THOUGH.
(1859)
MILL’S LIBERTY:MAIN FEATURES

MEANING OF
LIBERTY

IMPORTANCE
ECONOMY
OF LIBERTY
AND LIBERY
THAN UTILITY.

RELATIONS
PEOPLE
BEWTWEEN
IMMUNE
AUTHORITY
FROM LIBERTY
AND LIBERTY.

WOMEN’S TYPES OF
RIGHTS LIBERTY
 MEANING OF LIBERTY

2]SOCIAL ASPECT
MILL DEFINES LIBERTY
ACCORDING TO HIM AN 1]THE INDIVIDUAL WHERE EVERY
AS THE SOVERIGNITY OF
INDIVIDUAL HAS TWO ASPECT WHICH INDIVIDUAL IS AN
THE INDIVIDIUAL OVER
APECTS OF HIS LIFE: CONCERNS HIM ALONE. INTERGRAL PART OF THE
HIMSELF.
SOCIETY.
INDIVIDUALS MAY BE DIVIDED INTO
FOLLOWING CATAGORIES

SELF –REGARDING ACTIONS:

IT MEANS THE INDIVIDUAL

ASPECTS WHICH CONCERNS HIM
ALONE.

INDIVIDUAL IS SOVEREIGN OVER

HIS OWN BODY AND MIND IN
SELF –REGARDING ACTIONS.
 • CONTINUE…

OTHER REGARDING ACTIONS:

THE ACTIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL,WHICH AFFECT THE SOCIETY,CAN BE REGULATED

BY THE STATE.

THE SOCIETY HAS THE RIGHT OF INTERFERENCE IN INDIVIDUAL’S ACTIONS.

STATE IS JUSTIFIED IN INTERFERING WITH INDIVIDUAL’S OTHER REGARDING

ACTIONS.
IMPORTANCE OF LIBERTY THAN UTILITY

MILL REGARDED LIBERTY AS THE MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE TO PROTECT AND

PROMOTE INDIVIDUALITY.

IT IS NEEDED FOR THE ENRICHMENT OF INDIVIDUAL’S PERSONALITY.

ULTIMATELY THE VALUE OF A STATE DEPENDES UPON THE QUALITY OF

INDIVIDUALS.
HE BELEIVED THAT PROGRESS OF A SOCIETY DEPENDS UPON THE ORIGINALITY
AND ENERGY OF THE INDIVIDUAL.
 CONTINUE….

HE ARGUE THAT SOCIETY OUGHT TO PROMOTE INDIVIDUALITY AS IT IS

A PRE-REQUISITE FOR CREATIVITY AND DIVERSITY.
SOCIETY PROGRESSES FROM LOWER TO HIGHER STAGES AND THAT
THIS PROGRESS CULMINATES IN THE EMERGENCE OF A SYSTEM OF
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY.
MILL JUSTFIED LIBERTY OF THE PEOPLE ON THE BASIS OF UTILITY.
 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AUTHORTY AND
LIBERTY

• STATE INTERFEARANCE MUST BE REDUCED TO THE MINIMUM.

• STATE ACTIONS CAN MEAN COLLECTIVE TYRANNY.
• STATE HAS RIGHT OF REGULATING THE ACTIONS OF INDIVIDUALS[WITH
SPECIAL REFFERNCE TO SOCIETY].
• THE STATE CAN COMPEL THE INDIVIDUAL TO PERFORMED HIS DUTIES
AND OBLIGATIONS AS A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY.
 TYPES OF LIBERTY

• FREEDOM OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
• LIBERTY OF THOUGHT,EXPRESSION AND EMOTION[FREEDOM OF SPEECH,ETC]
• LIBERTY OF TESTES AND PURSUITS.
• LIBERTY OF ASSOCIATION,LIBERTY TO JOIN OTHERS.
• LIBERTY TO PURSUE ONE’S VOCATION IN LIFE,FREEDOM TO PLAN ONES’S LIFE.
• LIBERTY OF RELIGION AND MORALS.
 WOMEN’S RIGHTS

• THE MILL’S BOOK “THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN”1869 WAS RADIACL IN

ITS TIME.
• GENERAL WELFARE-
PROMOTING JUSTICE
ENHANCING MORAL SESITIVIY
RIGHT TO VOTE FOR WOMEN
 MILL EXCLUDED FROM LIBERTY

• MENTALLY RETARDED PEOPLE AND CHILDERN.

• LIBERTY –NOT FOR BACKWARD PEOPLE/RACES.
 ECONOMY AND LIBERTY

HE PROMOTED ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY INSTEAD OF CAPITALISM.

HE PROPONDED FREE MARKET POLICY .
 RELIGION AND LIBERTY

• RELIGION AND PERSONAL INTEGRITY ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS.

• HONESTY IS PERSONAL QUALITY OF INDIVIDUAL ,IT IS NOT ANY WAY
RELATED TO RELIGIOUS BELIEF.
 “REPRESENTATIVE
GOVERNMENT”1861
 MILL WAS A PARLIAMENTARIAN OF HOUSE OF COMMOM.
HE EMPHASISED ON EQULITY OF WOMEN,COMPULSORY EDUCATION,BIRTH CONTROL,LAND REFORMS.
HE WAS THE LOVER OF DEMOCRACY.
 DEMOCRACY IS BEST
FORM OF GOVERNMENT
DEMOCRACY IS NOT
SUITABLE FOR ALL
SOCIETIES
MATERIAL,MENTAL,INTELL
ECTUAL ADVANCEMENT
OF THE PEOPLE IS NEEDED
DEMOCRACY SUFFER FROMTWO DANGERS
GENERAL IGNORANCE AND
A LOW GRADE INCAPACITY OF ELECTED
INTELLEGENCE IN THE LEADERS TOWARDS
REPRESENTATIVE BODY COMMON WELFARE NEEDS
REFORMS IN THE REPRESENTATIVE
GOVERNMENT
 THE IDEA OF WEIGHTED
SUFFARAGE,PLURAL VOTES
ADVOCATED THE LEADERSHIP OF THE ELITE
CLASS
PROPOTIONAL REPRESENTATION
OPEN BALLOT
EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN
WOMEN FRANCHISE
UTILITARIANISM
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF UTILITARIANISM

• THAT ACTION IS RIGHT WHICH PROMOTES THE GREATEST HAPPINESS

OF THE GREATEST NUMBER.
PLEASURE IS NOT SAME AS HAPPINESS
• Utilitarianism, by John Stuart Mill, is an essay written to provide support for the
value of utilitarianism as a moral theory, and to respond to misconceptions about it.
Mill defines utilitarianism as a theory based on the principle that "actions are right in
proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the
reverse of happiness." Mill defines happiness as pleasure and the absence of pain.
He argues that pleasure can differ in quality and quantity, and that pleasures that
are rooted in one's higher faculties should be weighted more heavily than baser
pleasures. Furthermore, Mill argues that people's achievement of goals and ends,
such as virtuous living, should be counted as part of their happiness
• Mill argues that utilitarianism coincides with "natural" sentiments that originate
from humans' social nature. Therefore, if society were to embrace utilitarianism as
an ethic, people would naturally internalize these standards as morally binding.
Mill argues that happiness is the sole basis of morality, and that people never
desire anything but happiness. He supports this claim by showing that all the other
objects of people's desire are either means to happiness, or included in the
definition of happiness. Mill explains at length that the sentiment of justice is
actually based on utility, and that rights exist only because they are necessary for
human happiness.
• The theory of utilitarianism has been criticized for many reasons. Critics
hold that it does not provide adequate protection for individual rights, that
not everything can be measured by the same standard, and that happiness
is more complex than reflected by the theory. Mill's essay represents his
attempt to respond to these criticisms, and thereby to provide a more
complex and nuanced moral theory.
• Mill's argument comprises five chapters. His first chapter serves as an
introduction to the essay. In his second chapter, Mill discusses the definition
of utilitarianism, and presents some misconceptions about the theory. The
third chapter is a discussion about the ultimate sanctions (or rewards) that
utilitarianism can offer. The fourth chapter discusses methods of proving the
validity of utilitarianism. In his fifth chapter, Mill writes about the connection
between justice and utility, and argues that happiness is the foundation of
justice.
THANK YOU….