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John Locke and John Stuart Mill
John Locke and John Stuart Mill
John Locke and John Stuart Mill
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Charles Baudelaire, a well-known English poet, once said that “Nature... is nothing but the inner voice of self-interest.” The philosophical theme of self-interest has been a common idea among political thinkers for many years. In any issue that is linked to the realm of political philosophy, the role of self-interest within a society must be considered. The role of self-interest within a society is the basis for the moral thinking that involves weighing the “needs and obligations of an individual against the goods of the individual and in turn society” (The Role of Self interest in Political Philosophy). Before confronting an issue within a society, a political thinker must decide whether or not people are ultimately self-interested. The government system of checks and balances was established to confront the issue of self-interest. The political thinkers, John Stuart Mill and John Locke unveiled the mysteries of what it meant to live in freedom and possess liberty, in which the self-interest of humanity does not impose on the rights of others. Both Locke and Mills believed that in order to govern over a society, people must have freedom. The difference between these political thinkers lies in how much freedom people should be entitled to within a political society.
In order to understand how Mill and Locke came to the conclusion of how much freedom a person should possess, we must understand what a political thinker perceives as freedom and liberty. In John Locke’s writings, The Second Treaties of Government, he states that “all men exist in a state of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and person as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave or depend...
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Mill, John Stuart, “On Liberty. ch. 1, 3,” from Project Gutenberg Web site: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34901, No. 01/10, Pp. 1-19, Public Domain, 2011
For more than two thousand years, the human race has struggled to effectively establish the basis of morality. Society has made little progress distinguishing between morally right and wrong. Even the most intellectual minds fail to distinguish the underlying principles of morality. A consensus on morality is far from being reached. The struggle to create a basis has created a vigorous warfare, bursting with disagreement and disputation. Despite the lack of understanding, John Stuart Mill confidently believes that truths can still have meaning even if society struggles to understand its principles. Mill does an outstanding job at depicting morality and for that the entire essay is a masterpiece. His claims throughout the essay could not be any closer to the truth.
John Stuart Mill included various sets of principles under “the appropriate region of liberty.” Of these principles, Mill listed the first principle such that they are encompassed in one category. According to Mill, the first principle included, “the inward domain of consciousness; demanding liberty of conscience, in the most comprehensive sense; liberty of thought and feeling... or theological.” Within this principle, individuals have the right of picking whatsoever they desire and minting a liberty that affect themself. Moreover, Mill included the liberty of expressing opinions, and letting individuals to do what they want; having in mind their action doesn’t harm other individuals. Furthermore, Mill also included that in a democrat and liberty states, individuals should not be “forced or deceived” . According to Mill, no society can be considered free if these principles are not followed. Thus, in order one to be a democrat and liberty state, citizens must have the choice to follow these principles.
John Mill’s On Liberty seeks to expound on how individuals and the society can exist as liberal entities without infringing on each other’s rights. Liberty is the condition of being free within the society, that is free from any form of restriction inflicted by authority. He argues that individual freedom is the basis of democracy where people exercise their own free will (Mill 2005). He also rejects the idea of social contract where individuals comply with society for them to gain social benefit (Mill 2005). It is generally thought that social development can only occur if certain constraints are placed on individual liberty. But the contrary is also true, if restriction are placed on people’s freedom, it becomes difficult for them to thrive
Locke and Rousseau present themselves as two very distinct thinkers. They both use similar terms, but conceptualize them differently to fulfill very different purposes. As such, one ought not be surprised that the two theorists do not understand liberty in the same way. Locke discusses liberty on an individual scale, with personal freedom being guaranteed by laws and institutions created in civil society. By comparison, Rousseau’s conception portrays liberty as an affair of the entire political community, and is best captured by the notion of self-rule. The distinctions, but also the similarities between Locke and Rousseau’s conceptions can be clarified by examining the role of liberty in each theorist’s proposed state of nature and civil society, the concepts with which each theorist associates liberty, and the means of ensuring and safeguarding liberty that each theorist devises.
Mill begins by stating that government is primarily a means to an end, the latter being described variedly, such as Locke’s “the public good,” and the utilitarian principle “the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers,” which he believes are fair, yet defective; and therefore, Mill writes that in
Philosophy has offered many works and debates on morality and ethics. One of these works is the concept of utilitarianism. One of the most prominent writers on the theory of utilitarianism is John Stuart Mill. He suggests that utilitarianism may be the guide for morality. His writing on utilitarianism transcends through the present in relation to the famous movie The Matrix. In the movie, people live in a virtual reality where they are relatively happy and content and the real world is filled with a constant struggle to survive. The movie revolves around Neo, who tries to free people from the virtual world in which they live. In light of utilitarianism, freeing these people would be morally wrong. In this essay, I will first explain John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism and some objections it faces. I will then talk about utilitarianism’s relation to The Matrix and why it would be morally wrong to free the people and subject them to the real world.
...onally accept harm as legitimate reason for the government to restrict individual freedoms, everyone's understanding of what constitutes 'harm' is different. Utilitarian's may propose that harm is anything that is detrimental to an individual's happiness. If freedom is as important as Mill suggests then we can consider any restriction on freedom harmful, in which case the Government must constantly consider the degree of harm necessary to justify and outweigh the harm they will undoubtedly be causing by imposing restrictions on individual freedom. On this account of harm, we can conclude both that not only should the government only restrict an individual’s freedom in order to prevent harm to others, but also that the level of harm must be enough to outweigh the harm caused by a restriction of individual freedoms. For Mill, this would have been a very high threshold.
Utilitarianism defined, is the contention that a man should judge everything based on the ability to promote the greatest individual happiness. In other words Utilitarianism states that good is what brings the most happiness to the most people. John Stuart Mill based his utilitarian principle on the decisions that we make. He says the decisions should always benefit the most people as much as possible no matter what the consequences might be. Mill says that we should weigh the outcomes and make our decisions based on the outcome that benefits the majority of the people. This leads to him stating that pleasure is the only desirable consequence of our decision or actions. Mill believes that human beings are endowed with the ability for conscious thought, and they are not satisfied with physical pleasures, but they strive to achieve pleasure of the mind as well.
Mill, J. S. Stefan Collini (ed.), On Liberty and Other Writings, Cambridge University Press (2000 edn,)
In Defense of Liberty and Individuality. It is a little-known fact that for the past century, every American president has been given a copy of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty[1] upon entering office. Since its publication in 1859, On Liberty’s discussions of liberty and individuality have been a foundation for modern Western political thought and for the liberal democracy.
John Stuart Mill agreed that democracy was the form of government that could best secure the happiness of all. But the end is not just well-being, as earlier utilitarians argued, though it is that. The end that recommends it is the tendency to foster self-development and individuality. Representative government, is particular, he defended as that form which best encourages individuality. It leads people to take a more active and intelligent participation in society. It provides moral training and encourages the development of natural human sympathies. The result is the habit of looking at social questions from an impersonal perspective rather than that of self-interest. But Mill's defense of democracy was much qualified. To be sure, he was, like the earlier utilitarians, sympathetic to the fall of the ancient regime and to the ends of the French Revolution. He strove to liberalize the press still severely bound by an absurd libel law that excluded effective social criticism. But influenced by Coleridge he had come to see that there were virtues in social systems, even out-dated ones, else why would not have survived so long. He therefore came to appreciate the conservative arguments that unrestrained freedom is dangerous. Mill argued, reasonably on utilitarian grounds, that social institutions need to be adapted to the time and place where they operate. He even suggests that, since people must be properly fit if democracy is to function well, a despotic form of government, if well-run with this aim in mind, might prepare its people for the exercise of responsibilities of a free electorate. In his thinking about how best to administer a state as a whole, Mill argued that the best administration was one that relied upon professional skills.
John Stuart Mill defines liberty in relation to three spheres; each successive sphere progressively encompasses and defines more elements relating to political society.... ... middle of paper ... ... Locke’s views simply stem from his faith in man and his potential to succeed independently, which collectively promotes the prosperity of the state. Mill does not implicitly trust or distrust man and therefore does not explicitly limit freedom, in fact he does define freedom in very liberal terms, however he does leave the potential for unlimited intervention into the personal freedoms of the individual by the state.
In his excerpt “Utilitarianism,” John Stuart Mill, argues that the right laws, education and public opinion would help people to make the right decisions regarding happiness as well as prevent them from having objectable desires. Utilitarianism is, in Mill’s words, pleasure and the absence of pain. The overall concept of utilitarianism is the view that the supreme principal of morality is to preform acts that bring as much happiness as possible. In his passage, Mill introduces a number of factors that influence one’s happiness and provides examples on how each being obtains the facilities to bring happiness to ourselves as well as the people around us through just laws, proper education, and public opinion. He argues for the quality and the quantity of one’s actions and the happiness produced thereof. The final point Mill attributes to his argument is that the happiness that forms the foundation of the utilitarian standard of what is morally right in one’s conduct is not only the person who is preforming the act’s happiness but the happiness of those it affects as well.
John Stuart Mill’s view of justice as a tool of utility protects the moral rights of individuals. Rights are utilitarian to Mill because they allow for individual people to flourish and society as a whole could not make any progress without the flourishing of its people. Justice is a tool which protects these rights and allows for a progression in society. Private property is included in Mill’s concept of justice, however it can also work against expediency and the flourishing of a society.