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Dale E. Miller

Dale E. Miller J.S. Mill: Moral, Social and Political Thought , (Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity), 252 pp. ISBN: 978-0-07456-2583-6 (hbk); 978-0-7456-2584-3 (pbk). Hardback/Paperback: £ 55.00/15.99. The great virtue of this book is that it takes seriously Mill’s utilitarianism. Too many accounts of Mill’s thought have attempted to reinterpret Mill as anything but a utilitarian. This fashion was perhaps established by Isaiah Berlin’s account of Mill in ‘John Stuart Mill and the Ends of Life’, where Mill’s commitment to individual liberty is seen in terms of a retreat from the utilitarianism of Bentham and his father James Mill. Many studies of Mill take the view that, while his liberalism is to be applauded, his utilitarianism is to be regretted, and is, therefore, best written out of the account as something of an embarrassment. All this, presumably, is a result of the current obsession with intuitionism and so-called deontological ethics (I say so-called since it was Bentham who invented the term ‘deontology’). Miller emphasizes the fact that Mill was never anything but a utilitarian throughout his career. He might have added that liberalism itself is a product of utilitarianism, and that this is something that contemporary liberals would do well to remember. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Moral Philosophy Brill

Dale E. Miller

Schofield, Philip
Journal of Moral Philosophy , Volume 11 (1): 128 – Jan 1, 2014
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2014 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Subject
Book Reviews
ISSN
1740-4681
eISSN
1745-5243
DOI
10.1163/17455243-01101006
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

J.S. Mill: Moral, Social and Political Thought , (Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity), 252 pp. ISBN: 978-0-07456-2583-6 (hbk); 978-0-7456-2584-3 (pbk). Hardback/Paperback: £ 55.00/15.99. The great virtue of this book is that it takes seriously Mill’s utilitarianism. Too many accounts of Mill’s thought have attempted to reinterpret Mill as anything but a utilitarian. This fashion was perhaps established by Isaiah Berlin’s account of Mill in ‘John Stuart Mill and the Ends of Life’, where Mill’s commitment to individual liberty is seen in terms of a retreat from the utilitarianism of Bentham and his father James Mill. Many studies of Mill take the view that, while his liberalism is to be applauded, his utilitarianism is to be regretted, and is, therefore, best written out of the account as something of an embarrassment. All this, presumably, is a result of the current obsession with intuitionism and so-called deontological ethics (I say so-called since it was Bentham who invented the term ‘deontology’). Miller emphasizes the fact that Mill was never anything but a utilitarian throughout his career. He might have added that liberalism itself is a product of utilitarianism, and that this is something that contemporary liberals would do well to remember.

Journal

Journal of Moral Philosophy – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2014

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