Liberalism (Locke, Mill)

James Farmelant farmelantj at juno.com
Wed Oct 28 07:04:17 PST 1998


Concerning J.S. Mill's conversion in later life to socialism it should be noted that its been a matter of some controversy among Mill scholars. Hayek as I recall seemed to blame it on the nefarious influence of Harriet Taylor since presumably Mill's socialism constitutes a blemish on hos otherwise admirable (from Hayek's standpoint) liberalism.

Since Mill's socialism seems to have been a species of market socialism I imagine that he must rank high up in Justin's pantheon.

Jim Farmelant

On Tue, 27 Oct 1998 22:33:59 EST JKSCHW at aol.com writes:
>In a message dated 98-10-27 10:50:24 EST, you write:
>
>The point of this? I mean, does it undermine the message of of On
>Liberty, a
>generally wonderful if somewhat overly utilitarian (though considering
>the
>source what would you expect?) defense of freedom of speech and
>freedom of
>different ways of living to note that Mill had a number of prejudices
>that we
>on this list don't share? Mill was an imperialist agent by way of a
>livelihood. He revered genius and thought that most people are herd
>animals,
>although he did think that they should be free and enfranchised. He
>believed
>in plural voting with more votes for the better educated. He opposed
>revolutionary socialism. On the other hand, he became a socialist,
>breaking
>with the free-market pieties of his father and Bentham; he was an
>ardent
>feminist, and he was a champion of liberty and democracy at a time
>when it was
>neither popullar nor profitable. And all of this is more or less
>irrelevant to
>the merits of On Liberty. --jks
>
>

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