Liberalism (Locke, Mill)

JKSCHW at aol.com JKSCHW at aol.com
Wed Oct 28 20:08:58 PST 1998


I had praised Mill's On Liberty, despite its utilitarian limitations, as a lighthouse to guide our thinking about freedom of speech and of living generally as against those who think that they are confident enough about what makes us happier that they feel that they can call the cops on those who express contrary views. Rakesh expresses some doubts about utilitarianianism excerted below. I share these doubts, but will remark only here that Mill was aware of them. It['s a pretty good question what's left of utilitarianism when one concedes taht there are incommensurable goods, as Mill insists in the open chapters of Utilitarianism.

--jks

<< would also have to re-read the argument in ON Liberty to determine its

philosophic consistency--that is, whether the spirited and inspiring

defense of individuality is indeed based on or can be based on or

ultimately circumscribed by utilitarianism in any of its many variants.

From another angle, reading Meikle's Aristotle's Economic Thought did

illuminate why "utilitarianism unsuprisingly fits the requirements of

economics...because it had been designed for this supported and subordinate

role in the first place...There is only one end, pleasure or utility, and

all actions are means to it. They are therefore to be judged only in their

efficacy in promoting that end, so that only the consequences of actions

are significant, not the actions themselves." p. 107

>>



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list