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Reforming Utilitarianism: Lyric Poetry in J. S. Mill’s “Thoughts on Poetry and Its Varieties” and Autobiography

Reforming Utilitarianism: Lyric Poetry in J. S. Mill’s “Thoughts on Poetry and Its... <p>Abstract:</p><p>Mill’s statement that “poetry is overheard” is often read as a definition of the lyric in miniature and is associated with social retreat. Yet Mill saw his encounter with the Wordsworthian lyric as a corrective to utilitarian social theory, and as a supplement to Adam Smith’s theory of sympathy. Mill suggests that the writings of James Mill and Jeremy Bentham overlook the bond connecting individuals to one another. He reconceives communal aspects of feeling by drawing on Wordsworth’s poetry as the fulfillment of Smith’s affective account of social relations, a development which anticipates affect theory.</p> http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of the History of Ideas University of Pennsylvania Press

Reforming Utilitarianism: Lyric Poetry in J. S. Mill’s “Thoughts on Poetry and Its Varieties” and Autobiography

Beenstock, Zoe
Journal of the History of Ideas , Volume 81 (4) – Nov 6, 2020
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Publisher
University of Pennsylvania Press
Copyright
Copyright © The Journal of the History of Ideas, Inc.
ISSN
1086-3222

Abstract

<p>Abstract:</p><p>Mill’s statement that “poetry is overheard” is often read as a definition of the lyric in miniature and is associated with social retreat. Yet Mill saw his encounter with the Wordsworthian lyric as a corrective to utilitarian social theory, and as a supplement to Adam Smith’s theory of sympathy. Mill suggests that the writings of James Mill and Jeremy Bentham overlook the bond connecting individuals to one another. He reconceives communal aspects of feeling by drawing on Wordsworth’s poetry as the fulfillment of Smith’s affective account of social relations, a development which anticipates affect theory.</p>

Journal

Journal of the History of Ideas – University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: Nov 6, 2020

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