John Stuart Mill Flashcards
What was his most famous work?
On Liberty (1859)
Where do people put Mill’s work in context to liberalism?
The bridge between classical liberalism and modern liberalism and seen to represent ‘transitional liberalism’
What type of freedom did Mill come up with?
‘Negative Freedom’
What is ‘negative freedom’?
That freedom is mainly an absence of restraint
What did Mill divided human actions into?
‘self regarding’ and ‘other regarding’
What is self regarding?
A self-regarding action is one that (directly) affects only the human themselves
What is other regarding?
Other-regarding actions are those that harm others who are not rational, free, undeceived, consenting adults
Why did Mill want tolerance of diverse opinions?
Mill argued that because it would ensure new ideas emerged while bad ideas were exposed via open, rational debate
What did he see liberty as?
Not just a ‘natural right’ and an end itself but as the engine of ongoing human development
What did Mill mean with the term ‘‘individuality’?
Not just the liberation of the individuals but what the individual could become
Famous Mill quote on the development of a persons individualism?
‘Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied’
What key things did Mill distinguish between?
‘individualism’ and ‘undividualirty’
What did he fear a democratic state had the potential to create
A tyranny of the majority
