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Lecture Review Notes 8:
Harriet Martineau
Harriet Taylor
John Stuart Mill
1802  -  1876
1807  -  1858
1806  -  1873
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Harriet Martineau      1802 - 1876   
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Harriet Taylor             1807 - 1857   
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      The Influence of Comte & St. Simon on Taylor & Mill   
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      Taylor & Mill's Economic Theory   
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      Taylor & Mill on the Subjugation of Women   
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      Taylor & Mill's Political Theory   
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John Stuart Mill           1806 - 1873   

 
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 An Overview of   Harriet Martineau  1802 - 1876
External
Links
  -  Project:  Martineau on Slavery 
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  -  Supplement: Video:  The Rosa Parks Story
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-  Biography & Major Works 
 
  THE 1st STRUGGLE OF DEMOCRACY, OVER THE LEGITIMACY OF DEMOCRACY, WAS BTWN ITS OPPONENTS & SUPPORTER; I.E. THE ARISTOCRATS & THE COMMONERS   
  Democracy demonstrated that people can rule themselves, but aristocrats doubted this & feared the people   
 
The first struggle of democracy took place primarily in Europe   
 
Martineau agreed w/ James Madison & Tocqueville, that the US was proving things that had long been regarded as impossible, i.e. that a people can govern itself 
 
  Martineau saw two classes, or parties, the aristocratic & the democratic   
  The men of learning, feared the ascendancy of the uneducated & allied w/ the aristocratic & they also feared the principle of merit would no longer prevail   
  Martineau saw the classes in America embodied in the parties of 1799 of the Jacksonian era as the Federal ( aristocratic ) & Republican ( democratic )   
  The democratic ( Republican ) party consisted of the hopeful who had not yet risen, people who had gained knowledge from life, not books   
  Martineau noted that Jefferson said one party, "fears most the ignorance of the people, the other, the selfishness of rulers independent of them."   
  IN THE US, THE STRUGGLE OVER THE LEGITIMACY OF DEMOCRACY DID NOT OCCUR BECAUSE OF THE FEW ARISTOCRATS, THE MERITOCRACY, THE CHANCE FOR ADVANCEMENT, & THE GREATER GENERAL EQUALITY   
  The first struggle over the legitimacy of democracy did not occur in the US 
 
  Like Tocqueville, Martineau recognized that this class division bore no resemblance to the classes in Europe   
  For Martineau, the classes in America are different because here the poor respected the institution of private property   
  Martineau was in awe of the energy, intelligence, & competence & the absence of poverty & ignorance & that there was no sign of servility   
  Martineau noted that in Am even villages had libraries, factories, newspapers & public debates   
  Yet poverty did exist, & the rich did flaunt their wealth   
  Thus, for Martineau, the question in America must be framed as the nature of the struggle btwn aristocracy & democracy   
  BECAUSE THERE WAS SOMEWHAT OF AN ARISTOCRACY IN THE SOUTH, DEMOCRACY WAS LESS POPULAR & EFFECTIVE   
  For Martineau the question is 'Should the people govern or should the rich, who were also, presumably, the wise, save the people from themselves, and rule?'   
 
The aristocrats believed the rich, i.e. the govt of the rich should rule 
 
 
The aristocrats saw the will of the majority as the flaw in the new republic because, for example, the poor might overtax the rich 
 
 
The democrats believed in a govt of the people & that rulers in general are prone to use their power for selfish purposes 
 
 
While the Southerners saw the aristocrat / democrat dichotomy as a struggle between pauperism & property, the Northerners saw it as a question of who should win... & they both should win 
 
 
When property succeeds, it becomes despotic 
 
 
Martineau believed that the new system promised & delivered better material conditions than could be expected elsewhere 
 
 
While the system posited that the majority wills the best policies & elects the best officials, this was not true in practice 
 
 
Yet the Federal (rich) party had produced superior leaders 
 
 
For Taylor & Mill the dilemma of democracy was choosing better leaders w/ aristocratic values or worse leaders w/ popular values 
 
 
America had a self correcting feature:  the ability to throw out corrupt politicians 
 
 
ABOLITION WAS THE ONLY MORAL STANCE ON SLAVERY BECAUSE OF ITS VIOLENCE & CORRUPTION OF THE GENERAL POPULACE 
 
  From 1834-1836 she traveled in the US & met leading abolitionists & became a strong opponent of slavery   
  She attacked slavery in her book Society in America, 1837   
  A democratic republic that is half slave, half free is a contradiction in terms   
  But the threat of slavery to freedom was caused not only by the Southern states but by the Northern states as well   
  The Southern media took no notice of slave burnings  
  A St. Louis paper feared retaliation for reporting on white on black violence   
  The mobs in the North, the South, & in Europe were very different   
  In Europe, mobs were an expression of the exasperated misery of workers & peasants rebelling against oppression   
  In the US, a Boston mob was wholly composed of gentlemen of social status   
  Northerners became compromised in that the merchants & professional men of Boston & other New England cities were fond of Charleston because of commerce   
  People learned that friends & relatives were ostracized if they criticized slavery   
  There was no law limiting the expression of opinion on moral & political subjects, but many wanted it   
  Martineau was temporarily taken in by the anti abolitionist propaganda   
  While Southerners complained that Northerners distributed anti slave info, she never found any   
  Abolitionist meetings were followed by mobbing & rioting, & ironically it was the abolitionists who were blamed   
  Women played a central role because they were not silenced by the anti abolitionists, & continued to pursue abolition   
  George Thompson was a well known English, antislavery orator who was threatened & then did not speak   
  US abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, spoke & was attacked by the mob   
  Garrison published The Genius of Universal Emancipation & was thrown into jail for libel & later he helped found the Liberator in 1831   
  Garrison also adopted other unpopular causes: feminism, anticlericalism, anarchism, universal suffrage, further estranging himself   
  On visiting the South, Martineau learned that opposition to slavery & abolition were not the same thing to Southerners   
  Thus, Martineau concluded that Garrison & other abolitionists were retarding the antislavery movement   
  Segregation & discrimination were facts of life in the North & black schools were often not tolerated   
 
SLAVERY DEMEANED LABOR & JUSTICE 
 
  Martineau demonstrated that the institution of slavery contradicted democracy   
  By 1834, when Martineau visited the US, indentured servitude of white immigrants had been abolished   
  13 Southern states allowed slavery, numbering 2.5 mm slaves   
  Some states produced slaves to sell to the other states   
  In the North, work was respected & acquired a moral significance but in the South, work was stigmatized & was seen as degrading   
  In the South, there were two classes, the servile & the imperious   
  The fundamental morality of the slave system was that labor is demeaning & disgraceful   
  Children grow up pitying all whites who have to work   
  This produced the another class among whites:  the mean whites   
  Those who have the stigma of work w/o the color are despised among the blacks   
  Those who have the color w/o the stigma of work are despised among the whites   
  Martineau asks, where there is no justice, what other social virtues are possible?   
  Mercy, the affection that slave holders often showed for their slaves, was mistakenly regarded as an adequate substitute for justice   
  Martineau became weary of explaining that indulgence cannot atone for injury   
 
SLAVERY INJURED THE WHITE FAMILY MORALITY BECAUSE OF THE INHERENT PROSTITUTION IN THE INSTITUTION 
 
  The Quadroon girls of New Orleans were mistresses of white gentlemen & boys were also sex slaves 
 
  Quadroon girls were educated & refined & had a master/lover for life or until the white man was married   
  Then Quadroon girls often committed suicide or remained his mistress   
  Conjugal relations were also common on the plantations btwn slaves & masters   
  Wives of planters were only "the chief slave of the harem."   
  Female slaves became mothers at 15   
  The stricter emancipation laws were a response to the mixed races resulting from these relations   
  To set them free would have been a serious breach of the slave system   
  Martineau notes that the planter accused the abolitionists of their own practice of mixing the races   
  The cruelty to slaves & the sex system created a deep hatred of whites   
  The ideology of the South was such that they did not grasp the true nature of their relationship with the slaves   
  In religious matters there was segregation in church w/ the proclamation that god loves all equally   
  To Martineau, the contradiction btwn segregation in church & god's love was an insult   
 
SOCIETY IS WASTING THE RESOURCES OF HALF IT'S POPULACE, IT'S WOMEN
 
  If the US govt derives its power from the consent of the governed, then how can half the people have no voice?   
  Why should women obey laws that they never consented to?   
  Jefferson had excluded infants, women & slaves from the US democracy   
  Because women were denied education, their intellectual & other creative capacities remained undeveloped   
  The denial of education & undeveloped capacities reflects Wollstonecraft's analysis   
  But true love ran smoother in the US than in Europe in that there was less abuse & easier divorce   
  Marriage vows were reciprocal, property arrangements were more favorable to the wife, & the wife was not totally a slave of the man   
  The emancipation of any class takes place primarily through the efforts of the individuals of that class   
  It is not known if Martineau encountered any of the writings of Marx, but her belief that individual emancipation was impossible, that the emancipation of a class of people was the only route to freedom is exactly what Marx believed 
 
 
THE ECONOMY IS ONE OF THE CENTRAL FEATURES OF SOCIETY IN THAT IT SHAPES MANY OTHER TYPES OF SOC RELATIONS
 
  Martineau first gained notoriety w/ a series of stories & dialogues illustrating classical economics, esp the ideas of Malthus & Ricardo  
  After a visit it the US from 1834-1836 she began promoting the abolition of slavery & she abandoned her belief in a laissez faire econ for a more utopian system   
  She visited almost every type of institution:  prisons, asylums, hospitals, literary & scientific association, factories, plantations, farms & lived in palatial homes & log cabins   
  A trip to the near east in 1846 led to a study of the evolution of religious beliefs & an increasing skepticism   
  Her chief historical work, The History of the Thirty Years Peace, 1816-1846 (1849) was very popular & widely read   
  Her unorthodox views gain hear a reputation for radicalism that alienated some of her friends but failed to impede her pursuit of ideas   
  She became an adherent of positivist philosophy of Comte which today is known as positivism   
  She translated Comte's Positive Philosophy & offered an insightful discussion of it   

 
 
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Harriet Martineau  1802 - 1876

Martineau was born in Norwich, England. She was educated at home because of poor health. 
Harriet Martineau was the sister of James Martineau, the Unitarian leader. Member of a literary circle including John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor, & Thomas Carlyle. Martineau lost most of her hearing at age 12 & had to use a large ear trumpet. Her father, brother & lover all died before she was 24, leaving her impoverished & dependent on her pen for a livelihood.  She was the first English woman journalist writing for the Monthly Repository, the Unitarian journal, in 1821 when she was 19. Martineau was known as a British writer & social reformers who wrote widely on economic, philosophic, & social issues. 

She wrote more than 30 books & thousands of articles in spite of nearly constant illness.  She became famous for a series of stories called Illustrations of Political Economy, 1832-1834.
These stories explained economics for the ordinary reader. Martineau also wrote biographies, essays, fiction, history, poetry, religious works & children's stories. In her writing, Martineau opposed cruel treatment of children in factories & supported voting rights for women. She called for better education & health care for the poor & mentally ill. 

She wrote her Autobiography in three volumes & translated Comte's The Positive Philosophy & believed before she encountered Comte, that the study of society ought to become a rigorous discipline.

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Major Works of Harriet Martineau

Illustrations of Political Economy, 25 vol.  1832-1834
Poor Laws and Paupers Illustrated, 10 vol.  1833-34
Illustrations of Taxation, 5 vol  1834
How to Observe Manners and Morals, 1834
Society in America, 1837
Retrospect of Western Travel, 1838
Eastern Life, Past and Present, 1848
Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development, 1851
The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte, Freely Translated and Condensed, 1853

 
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 An Overview of   Harriet Taylor & John Stewart Mill
                          1807 -1857                   1806 - 1873
External
Links
Link
-  Biography & Major Works   
  TAYLOR & MILL WERE CONCERNED W/ THE 'TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY," I.E. THE TENDENCY FOR DEMOCRACIES TO RULE IMPULSIVELY & W/O REGARD FOR BASIC RIGHTS   
  Zeitlin believes that Taylor's work was in many ways more important than Mill's work, & many others agree 
 
  Mill embraced the Greek insight that how to think was more important than what to think 
 
  Taylor & Mill began the strand of thought that anticipated what Tocqueville later called the "tyranny of the majority
 
  The tyranny of the majority was the danger of social conformity 
 
  "What is called the opinion of society... is a combination of the many weak, against the few strong; an association of the mentally listless to punish any manifestation of mental independence.  The remedy is, to make all strong enough to stand alone, and whoever has once known the pleasure of self dependence, will be in no danger of relapsing into subserviency" 
Thus Taylor's influence can be seen in Mill's On Liberty
 
  TAYLOR & MILL THOUGHT THE PURSUIT OF LIBERTY WAS THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL STRUGGLE & A FACET OF THAT WAS THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN   
  Taylor & Mill had TWO missions in their life, the emancipation of women & the enhancement of liberty for all 
 
  Taylor & Mill's missions of the emancipation of women & the enhancement of liberty had to be accomplished w/o repressing the few   
  The influence of Comte & St. Simon on Taylor & Mill can be seen in there embrace of the idea of societal progress but in a rejection of an intellectual elite designing & ruling such a society   
  Taylor & Mill's economic theory stresses personal responsibility, allows people to get wealthy, & is a mix of socialism   
  On the subjugation of women, Taylor & Mill demonstrate that we are not going to talk or educate people out of being sexist, rather women will have to become educated & defeat sexist policies & prejudices   
  Taylor & Mill's political theory advocates the development of govt that protects liberty by protecting the weak from the strong & from the govt   

 
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Harriet Taylor 
       1807 -1857
Born Harriet Hardy, the daughter of a surgeon.  Both families were Unitarians and Dissenters.  The Unitarians were almost entirely free from bigotry.  ( Zeitlin, p. 124 )
Born Harriet hardy in Walworth, near Durham, England. 
1826 married John Taylor, a merchant.
Met JS Mill about 1930, and became close friends.
Taylor died in 1849; she married Mill in 1851
While all of Mill's main works were published after her death, they all were greatly influenced by her. Only the essay “Enfranchisement of Women” bears her name.  It appears in her husband's Discussions and Dissertations, a four volume work published from 1859 to 1875. 
WBE, 1991, Vol. 13, p. 552
Mills became distressed, Taylor brought him back to health & he wrote on corporal punishment, punishment of children, wife murder, & more
They now both had tuberculosis and so outlined their intellectual goals
Mill retired from a position at India House in 1858, they went together to the south of France, where Taylor died at Avignon on November 3rd.  She was 51 years old.  Zeit 0612 p128
JS bought a house there so he could always be near her. 
JS died 15 years later at the age of 67 after a brief illness attended by his wife's daughter Helen, who had looked after him since her mother's death  EP 314

 
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John Stewart Mill
    1806 - 1873

Mill was the most influential philosopher in the English speaking world during the 19th century.  ( Encyclopedia of Phil, p. 314 )  Mill was born in London and educated by his father, James Mill, 1773-1836.  By the age of 14 he had mastered Latin, classical literature, logic, political economy, history, & math.  He entered the East India Company as a clerk at 17.  Like his father, he became director of the company. He retired after 33 years of service and was elected to Parliament in 1865. Was the leader of the utilitarian movement. [ The utilitarian movement today is not highly regarded.  But his other works are widely respected. ] Mill tried to help the English working people by promoting measures leading to a more equal division of profits.  He favored a cooperative system of agriculture and increased rights for women. WBE, 1991, Vol. 13, p. 552 1826  JS Mill had an attack of intense depression.  It took the poetry of Wordworth to help cure him.  Mill felt he had been overly rational and that his capacity for emotion had been unduly weakened by strenuous training in analytical thought, with the result that he could no longer care for anything at all  EP 315. William John Fox was the most prominent Unitarian of the time and ran the Monthly Repository.  In 1830, after her second son was born, Taylor remarked to Fox that she needed a discussion partner.  Fox introduced her to JS Mill.  Zeitlin. In 1831 when he was 25 and she was 24.  they developed a deep though Platonic love and for the next 20 years they saw each other almost constantly despite the increasing social isolation this created  EP 315. Dissenters and Radicals became closer.  The Unitarians and the Utilitarians became closer  ( Zeitlin )


 
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Major Works of Harriet Taylor & J.S. Mill
Mill:
He served as editor of the Westminster Review  from 1835 to 1840 and wrote many articles on economics. 
His greatest philosophical work, System of Logic, 1843, ranks with Aristotle's work in that field.
Mill applied economic principles to social conditions in Principles of Political Economy, 1848. 
Utilitarianism, 1863
On Liberty, 1859
The Subjection of Women, 1869
Autobiography, 1873
WBE, 1991, Vol. 13, p. 552

 
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James Mill, father of John Stewart Mill
       1773 - 1836                       1806 - 1873

Mill was born in Scotland and graduated from Edinburgh University where he studied for the ministry.  he became a Presbyterian minister in 1798 but left the ministry in 1802 to become a journalist. Established a reputation as a writer with A History of British India, 1817.  this work influenced changes in the Indian government.  It won him a job with the East India company in 1819 which he headed from 1830 until his death.  In 1808, Mill met Jeremy Bentham, a political economist and the father of utilitarianism.  The utilitarians believed that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the sole purpose of all public action.  Mill followed Bentham and became editor of the utilitarian St. James’ Chronicle. Mill's writing helped clarify the meaning of utilitarianism. Analysis of Phenomena of the Human Mind, 1829:  a study of psychology
Elements of Political Economy, 1821:  wrote it for his son and became the first textbook of English economics. Fragment on Mackintosh, 1835:  views of utility as the basis of morals.
WBE, 1991, Vol. 13, p. 552


 
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An Outline on the 
 Influence of Comte & St. Simon on
Taylor
& Mill
1807 -1857
1806 - 1873
External
Links
  -  Project:  Can Education End Sexism?
Link
  Taylor & Mill were strongly influenced by early sociologists including Saint-Simon & Comte  
  On Liberty, which was published in February, 1859, was a response to Comte's positive philosophy in which intellectuals, artists, and the industrial elite would rule  
  Taylor & Mill believed that for Comte, society is everything & the individual is nothing  
  Taylor & Mill believed that for Comte, individuals can better themselves only at a certain stage determined by the elite  
  Taylor & Mill believed that Comte despised intellectual anarchy which caused moral disunity  
  Comte disdained vagabond liberty where laymen expressed opinions on complex social & political issues  
  While Comte had alerted the Mills to reducing individual freedom, the Utilitarians had guaranteed political democracy but still failed to preserve individual freedom  
  The Mills sought to modify utilitarianism and move it from being over-rationalistic to one that accept the humanities non-rational side  
  Thus from Comte & Saint-Simon, the Mills adopted the notion of critical & organic periods in history  
  Critical periods are when society destroys outmoded social forms & tends toward disintegration  
  Organic periods are those where new forms of common life are evolved & social cohesion is re-established  
  The Mills also accepted that the cultured class as the opinion leaders of society  
  England had to emerge from its critical period to an era of progress, less it fall to anarchy  
  Therefore the Mill followed THREE Guiding Principles  
  a.  Mere negative remarks are no longer sufficient, that is, critique of society is inadequate & it is necessary to replace what has been destroyed  
  b. The views of those who supported the status quo, the conservatives, could no longer be dismissed as mere lies in defense of vested interests  
  Taylor & Mill's view that what is now outmoded must have once been useful, serving a valuable social function otherwise it could not have survived, is a precursor to the functionalist view today  
  Those who defend status quo society are those who see the good still, or once saw the good  
  Hence, we must seek the truth in the views of conservatives & not merely reject them as false  
  The greatest vice facing social thought is not the tendency to make mistakes of fact or faulty inferences from facts, but the great ease w/ which data can be overlooked:  in a word, one-sidedness  
  Marx says we cannot escape our ideology. Can we embrace our opponents' ideology?  
  We must appreciate the truth that our opponents have learned  
  Each person is naturally one-sided & can overcome this only by education & moral effort  
  c. The tactics of a reformer must be adapted to the period in which they live  
  Reformers have THREE Fundamental Choices
i.     Critique the old system
ii.    Envision a new system
iii.  Focus on particular issues
 
  In a critical period there is no use in envisioning an entirely new system. because it will be ignored.   
  Because 'utopian visions of a future society' will be ignored, one should confine themselves to particular issues  
  Mill & Taylor did focus on the specific issues of the emancipation of women & the promotion of liberty, & so have often been called non-systematic  
  In an organic period, critique may be difficult to advance, but a new vision is more likely to find root  

 
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 An Outline on  Taylor & Mill's Economic Theory
1807 -1857       1806 - 1873
External
Links
  -  Project:  Are the Poor & the Rich Childlike?
Link
  While Taylor & Mill were at first laissez faire capitalists, towards the end of their careers they came to embrace a form of socialism
 
  Taylor & Mill shifted towards socialism because they came to realize the uselessness of political freedom w/o econ security & opportunity  
  Thus some form of socialism became more acceptable to Taylor & Mill later in their careers  
  Taylor & Mill's vision of a future society had a bourgeois character, e.g.. allowing mansions for the rich
 
  Taylor & Mill emphasized the development of strong character by means of personal self help
 
  A contemporary critical theorist, Jurgen Habermas, also has integrated the concept of the development of strong character by means of personal self help, & goes on to apply these techniques to social instits  
  The poor cannot be treated like children
 
  "The prospect of the future depends on the degree in which they can be made into rational beings"
 
  Are the poor like children?  How?  Are the rich like children?  How?  
 
Mill became distressed, Taylor brought him back to health & he wrote on corporal punishment, punishment of children, wife murder, & more
 
 
Mill & Taylor severely circumscribed the sphere of govt & applauded laissez faire capitalism  
 
The Mills believed that opinions are the dominant influence on social & historical change & so tried to construct & propagate a philosophical  position which would be of positive assistance to progress, scientific knowledge, individual freedom, & human happiness
 
  Mill advocated the creation of peasant proprietorships as a remedy for the problems in Ireland  
  The peasant proprietorships would have required a degree of land redistribution, which was almost unheard of at the time  
  While many thinkers of Mill's time professed the sacredness of property based on its sacredness in primitive societies, Mill did not accept this  
  Mill also would not accept the distribution of wealth which kept the laboring class in poverty & in many cases, starvation  
  While he did not come to a socialist solution, he did recognize the problem of poverty as one that had social solutions, thus opposing those people of his time who believed that some people were inferior & thus destined to poverty  
  Mill embraced the goal of the socialists to reform the system to eliminate poverty, but he wanted to maintain the institution of private property  

 
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 An Outline on
Taylor
&  Mill
1807 -1857
1806 - 1873
 on the Subjugation of Women
External
Links
  THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN
 
  Taylor & Mill demonstrated why paternalism was morally wrong & why it was an obstacle to the advance of society, men, & women
 
  Taylor & Mill recognized that people seldom abandon their prejudices in response to intellectual arguments 
 
  Taylor & Mill demonstrate in The Subjection of Women that intellectual argument is often one precondition for many people to be able to change their opinion  
  Furthermore, intellectual argument is very important for people to defend / maintain their ideology for people to accept a new ideology  
  Also the Romantic Movement was making rational/utilitarian ideas unpopular
 
  How did the subjection of women originate?
 
  Taylor & Mill believed the subjection of women originated because men desired women & thought they were important; then men prevailed because they were stronger; they put women in bondage
 
  Even if men prevailed because they are bigger & stronger, this is based on the concept of might makes right
 
  Laws emerge by formalizing tradition
 
  In the formalization of tradition into law, one who had been forced to obey, now became legally bound to obey
 
  In the instit of slavery, the power of masters became legitimized through a compact among masters who bound together for their common protection
 
  Slavery was once regarded as legitimate but now it was not
 
  The subjection of women is a milder form of slavery
 
  Many people feel that the existence of particular institutions proved that they were a good or natural adaptation of human nature & conducive to the general good
 
  The argument that if an instit exists, it must be natural, was & is exactly one of the major criticisms of structural functionalism  
  But this static point of view fails to understand that institutions are legitimized by those with superior power, & that many institutions outlive their original purpose
 
  Thus overcoming oppression often requires resistance and rebellion
 
  A rebellion of women is unlikely because men want not only obedience from women, but also their love and affection
 
  Thus society, men, devised a system of indoctrination in which women are brought up from their earliest years to believe in the virtues of feminine character of submission, & yielding to the control of men
 
  As society became more open, so did the number of opportunities available to every man, rich or poor  
  And many men justified oppressing women based on her nature  
  But we cannot know womens' [ or mens' ] nature until women acquire equality in all aspects of life  
  Therefore it is circular reasoning to oppress women because of their nature, when their nature is created by oppression, as noted by Wollstonecraft  
  Husbands who are frustrated at work, and powerless there, take these frustrations out on the family  
  Despite the subjection of women, they have proved themselves capable & all of us suffer from losing the talents of one half of all humans  
  Why was there no great production in philosophy, science or art by women?   
  In the middle 1800s, scarcely three generations of women had even been exposed to those cultural areas  
  Women, who are not taught to fight, are in favor of any other method of settling disputes  

 
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 Outline on the Political Theory of
Taylor
& Mill
1807 -1857
1806 - 1873
External
Links
  -  Project: Taylor & Mill on Liberty 
Link
  LIBERTY & THE RELATIONSHIP BTWN INDIVIDUALS & SOCIETY
 
  Individuals are radically affected by their membership in society & inevitably formed by the customs, habits, morality, and beliefs of those who raise them and of the associations they make
 
  Typical socialization by the family & other institutions of society is no assurance that the individual will feel themselves an organic member of any group because we will only feel connected if we are educated to do so
 
  On Liberty was published in February, 1858, & asked 'What are the nature and limits of power which may be exercised by society over the individual?'
 
  On Liberty was a response to Comte's positive philosophy in which intellectuals, artists, and the industrial elite would rule  
  In antiquity, liberty meant protection from the tyranny of the rulers who derived their authority through conquest or inheritance, & almost never with the consent of the ruled
 
  Central govt was established to prevent the strong from preying on the weak, ala Hobbes
 
  But central govt was also liable to exploit the weak
 
  After a long struggle, the aristocrats put limits on the ruler's power & that became the meaning of liberty
 
  Subjects thereby acquired rights when they limit ruler's power
 
  Constitutional checks were established when subjects limit ruler's power
 
  Absolutism gave way to constitutional monarchy
 
  What was now demanded was the sovereignty of the people, so that the govt became the servant of the people
 
  But the people could also rule with an iron hand
 
  In practice, the will of the people means the will of the majority, those who succeed in making themselves the majority
 
  Therefore the majority may oppress the minority & so we need precautions against this
 
  Tocqueville had suggested the tyranny of the majority may reduce individual freedom  
  Taylor & Mill therefore insisted that society must encourage minority opinions  
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The human race depends on the power of original thought, on the rediscovery of old truths & the discovery of the new  
  Original minds have one thing in common:  They are always in the minority  
  And the dangers of the majority arises not just from political authorities, but also from society itself: the people can impose the dominant & prevailing ideas & punish dissenters
 
  And indeed, Tories, trade unionists, Communists, and Christian Socialists all preached greater social solidarity
 
Link
What groups today preach greater solidarity?
 
  Given the tyranny of the despot, the tyranny of the govt, & the tyranny of the majority, the only purpose for which power can be exercised over the individual is to prevent harm to others  
Link
To what extent can we prevent harm to the self by the self?  
  For Mill & Taylor, the only power which government may have over a citizen, against his or her will, is to prevent harm to others  
  The Mills noted that Comte proposed a despotism of society over the individual surpassing anything contemplated by the strongest ruler  
  Human liberty must comprise the inner domain of consciousness: freedom of conscience in the most comprehensive sense; freedom of thought, feeling, opinion and sentiment on all subjects political, philosophical, theological, moral or scientific  
  In the face of growing intolerance of individualism, the Mills were determined to present the best defense of fundamental human freedoms  
  REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT  
  Representative govt is the best form  
  Participation in govt makes people active and gives vitally important moral training  
  The Mills supported Thomas Hare's plan of proportional representation & plural voting:  some people get more votes for education, responsibility, etc.   
  If only one person dissentS, the majority is no more justified in silencing that one person than the govt would be in silencing the many, if it had the power  
  There are FOUR Reasons to Preserve the Rights of Dissenters:  
  a.  We can never be sure the opinion we wish to stifle is false  
  b.  To silence discussion is an assumption of infallibility, but no one is infallible  
  c.  One may presume an opinion to be false only after it has been sufficiently contested & has remained unrefuted  
  d.  To rectify mistakes, one needs both experience & discussion because experience is not enough  
  There can be no positive social science that can inform us, w/ certainty, whether an opinion is useful  
  The usefulness of opinion is a matter of opinion  
  The greatest error of infallibility is not ones certitude that one is correct, but rather in trying to decide the question for others w/o permitting them to hear the opposition  
  Social intolerance fails to root out dissenting views  
  Even long held truths need to be frequently & fearlessly discussed if they are to be living truths and not just dogma  
  Liberty is not only the free expression of opinions, but also the free action based on opinions  
  Society has no right to hinder individuals as long as they act at their own risk  
  Actions which do harm others do require interference of society  
  Just as society requires that there should be diverse opinions, there should also be a variety of experiments in living  
  The Mills agreed w/ Wilhelm von Humboldt that the aim of humanity is the highest, most harmonious development of its creative powers & therefore we must safeguard the individuality of power and development  
  "The true aim of man is the highest and most harmonious development of his powers to a complete and consistent whole. Freedom is the ground and indispensable condition which the possibility of such a development presupposes."  
  To assure the development of the creative powers, & to safeguard individualism, there are TWO preconditions, which unite themselves into originality:  
        a.  freedom  
        b.  variety of situations  
  In proportion to the development of each person's individuality, the person becomes more valuable to themselves and to society  
  Thus the development of women & their individuality is an asset for society  
  It is essential that society optimize the emancipation of women  
  Where these two factors do not obtain, mediocrity prevails  
  Dangerous precedent:  declaring people incompetent because of strange ways  
  On Liberty asks,  'Should government do things to benefit citizens or should such things be left for the citizens to do themselves either through individually or in voluntary associations?'  
  Government should work to benefit citizens for THREE Reasons:  
  a.  Individuals can do it "better" than government.  [ How do we define better? ]  
  b.  Even if government could do it better, it is still better for individuals to do it because it is a means to their own mental education  
  c.  Government action breeds the great evil of governmental power  
  Should govt  interfere where legitimate competition causes pain for the losers?  Only if there is fraud, treachery, or force.  
  What if the loss is due to some environmental condition?   
  The Mills firmly support equality of opportunity  
  Remove all legal and ideological obstacles (for women).  
  Discrimination excluded people not because of their competence, but in spite of it  
  Thus, we cannot have reverse discrimination either  
  The Mills were aware of the importance of non rational & non institutional factors in society  
  While they believed in a democratic government, it could only work if citizens were free, educated, & tolerant of opposing views, & willing to sacrifice some of their immediate interest for the good of society  
  Gail Tulloch:  use discrimination or affirmative action only as a tie breaker  
  If society wants to remove socially inherited disabilities, such a project must begin in early childhood  
  The government must require for every child a good education, but this still allows for private education  

 
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What groups today preach greater solidarity?

W/in their own group:

W/in all of society / across groups?


 
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To what extent can we prevent harm to the self by the self?

drug use
suicide
assisted suicide
house in a fire zone


 
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 Outline on  John Stewart Mill
1806 - 1873
External
Links
Link
-  Biography & Major Works  
  INTRODUCTION
 
  John Stuart Mill ( JSM ) was a British philosopher, a political economist, a Member of Parliament & an influential liberal thinker
 
  JSM was an advocate of utilitarianism, the economic ethical theory that was systematized by his godfather, Jeremy Bentham, but adapted to German romanticism in such a way that it became a practical guide to everyday living
 
  Mill & Jeremy Bentham led the “Philosophic Radicals,” who advocated the rationalization of the law & legal institutions, universal male suffrage, the use of economic theory in political decision making, & a politics oriented by human happiness rather than natural rights or conservatism  
  Mill embraced the secular, scientific view of the Enlightenment in hat anything that we can know about human minds & wills comes from treating them as part of the causal order investigated by the sciences, rather than as special entities that lie outside it  
  MILL'S THEORY OF LIBERTY
 
  In On Liberty, Mill explores the nature & limits of the power that can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual
 
  Mill develops the concept of the harm principle which states that each individual has the right to act as he wants, so long as these actions do not harm others
 
  Under the harm principle if an act only directly affects the person undertaking the action, then society has no right to intervene even if it is believed that the actor is harming himself
 
  An action could not be restricted because it violated the conventions or morals of a given society  
  The only reason that justifies on interfering w/ the liberty of any other is self protection  
  The only purpose society can exercise power other another is to prevent harm to others  
  Children, those living in "backward states of society," etc. are exempt from the harm principle because they are incapable of self govt
 
 
Harm could encompass the failure to act in that failing to rescue a child could cause harm to society  
  One of his more controversial points was that individuals could engage in work for an employer under unsafe working conditions if the worker does so based on their own free will, thus ignoring Marx's et al's point of view that workers may have little choice in the matter if all they have to sell is their labor  
  On the other hand, a worker could not be forced into slavery, or even sell themself into slavery  
  Free discourse is a necessary condition for intellectual & social progress, & e can never be sure, he contends, that a silenced opinion does not contain some element of the truth
 
  Allowing people to air false opinions is productive for the TWO reasons that: 
 
  a.  individuals are more likely to abandon erroneous beliefs if they are engaged in an open exchange of ideas  
  b.  by forcing other individuals to re-examine & re-affirm their beliefs in the process of debate, these beliefs are kept from declining into mere dogma  
  It is not enough for Mill that one simply has an unexamined belief that happens to be true; one must understand why the belief in question is the true one  
  UTILITARIANISM  
  Utilitarianism is a philosophical mvmt centered upon the ethical idea that the criterion of morality is attaining the greatest happiness for the greatest number  
 
The principle of utility has a long history stretching back to the writers of the 1700s w/ roots going further back to Hobbes, Locke, & even to Epicurus  
 
Mill's "greatest happiness principle" holds that one must always act so as to produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people  
 
While Bentham treats all forms of happiness as equal, Mill developed a system of the separation of pleasure into different qualitative groups where intellectual & moral pleasures are superior to more physical forms of pleasure
 
  Centuries ago Epicurus had attacked the greatest happiness principle, stating that if people were only about pursuing happiness, we were no better than swine  
 
Mill responds to Epicurus by saying that he assumed that we are only capable of the pleasure of swine, while in truth we are capable of higher & lower pleasures, w/ higher pleasures including mental, aesthetic, & moral pleasures
 
  Mill distinguishes btwn "happiness" & "contentment," claiming that the former is of higher value than the latter, a belief wittily encapsulated in his statement that it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied  
  Mill argues that the 'simple pleasures' tend to be preferred by people who have no experience w/ high art, & are therefore not in a proper position to judge  
  Mill supported legislation to grant extra voting power to graduates, on the grounds that they were in a better position to judge what would be best for society  
  Mill in no way devalued the uneducated as people, & he certainly would have advocated sending the poor but talented to college because it is the education, & not the intrinsic nature, of the educated that Mill believed qualified them to have more influence in govt  
  Critics of utilitarianism noted the problem of schadenfreude where if enough people hated another person sufficiently, it would be useful for a utilitarian society to aid them in harming or eliminating the individual  
  Mill responded that this is the simple valuing of on individual over another, & should not be permitted; only if one harms another, may society act  
  Utility is to be conceived in relation to humankind "as a progressive being," which includes the development & exercise of our rational capacities as we strive to achieve a “higher mode of existence"  
  The rejection of censorship & paternalism is intended to provide the necessary social conditions for the achievement of knowledge & the greatest ability for the greatest number to develop & exercise their deliberative & rational capacities  
  Utilitarianism offers a rational basis, an external standard  for moral behavior while intuitionism has no mechanism w/ which to adjudicate differing moral claims, thus enabling people to ratify their own prejudices as moral principles  
  ECONOMICS  
  Early on, Mill advocated only free mkts, but he later came to embrace some limited regulation of the mkt & even later became known as being 'socialist oriented'  
  Mill accepted interventions in the economy, such as a tax on alcohol, if there were sufficient utilitarian grounds, & he accepted the principle of laws to regulate animal welfare  
  Mill believed firmly in the equality of taxation & opposed progressive tax rates  
  SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY & SOCIALIZATION  
  Much of Mill's ideas on social psych & socialization may be found in his works on logic (i.e. A System of Logic, & An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy) where he attacks intuitionist a.k.a. a priori, views of knowledge by bolstering empiricist, a.k.a. associationist or a posteriori views of knowledge  
  The intuitionist school emphasizes that in every act of thought, down to the most elementary, there is an ingredient which is not given to the mind through experience, but is contributed by the mind in virtue of its inherent powers  
  For the intuitionists, experience is a product of the mind & thus all true knowledge comes from the mind itself  
  Mill develops his social psychological view of empiricism in what he calls the associationist view whereby elementary experiences of the mind such as sight, sound, etc. are combined, i.e. associated, to socially construct the more complex processes of the mind such as moral feelings, values, etc.   
  Associationism attempts to explain a large variety of mental phenomena on the basis of experience plus very few mental laws of association  
  One of the greatest strengths of associationism is that because our beliefs & moral feelings are products of human social experience, humans are capable of being radically re-shaped, that our natures, rather than being fixed, are open to major alteration  
  The associationist doctrine places much greater emphasis on social & political institutions like the family, the workplace, & the state, than does the intuitionist doctrine that the nature of the mind offers strong resistance to being shaped by experience (i.e. that the mind molds experience rather than being molded by it).   
  Associationism suggests that if our experiences were to change, so would our minds  
  Associationism thereby fits nicely into an agenda of reform, because it suggests that many of the problems of individuals are explained by their situations (and the associations that these situations promote) rather than by some intrinsic feature of the mind.   
  When discussing human nature, reform intuitionism, & associationism in his autobiography, Mill says: 
I have long felt that the prevailing tendency to regard all the marked distinctions of human character as innate, and in the main indelible, and to ignore the irresistible proofs that by far the greater part of those differences, whether between individuals, races, or sexes, are such as not only might but naturally would be produced by differences in circumstances, is one of the chief hindrances to the rational treatment of great social questions, and one of the greatest stumbling blocks to human improvement.
 
  In his discussion on utilitarianism, Mill notes that his critics raise the objection that people are not motivated to support the general happiness, only their own happiness  
  Mill responds to the charge that people are not motivated to promote the general happiness of society, but only their own happiness by saying that in most cases, following one's own needs, as long as they harm no one else, w/o interference is sufficient  
  The pursuit of happiness of society, of the general welfare of society, when it does conflict w/ individual needs, is a duty & we must look at it in a Kantian manner in that true moral behavior is seen when I follow a path that advances the needs of others, or of society, when it goes against my own needs  
  Both Mill & Kant agree that duty, morality, the basis of society is found in humanity's ability to sacrifice individual needs for the greater good  
  THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN  
  In The Subjection of Women, he compares the legal status of women to the status of slaves & argues for equality in marriage & under the law.   
  Mill notes that:   
  a.  British women had fewer grounds for divorce than men   
  b.  husbands controlled their wives personal property  
  c.  children were the husband's  
  d.  rape was impossible within a marriage  
  e.  wives lacked crucial features of legal personhood, since the husband was taken as the representative of the family thereby eliminating the need for women's suffrage  
  The conditions of women which Mill & Taylor noted gives some indication of how disturbing and/or ridiculous the idea of a marriage btwn equals, which Mill & Taylor advocated & demonstrated, appeared to Victorians of the time  
  Mill says:
The principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes—the legal subordination of one sex to the other—is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other
 
  Mill appeals to both the injustice of contemporary familial arrangements & to the negative moral impact of those arrangements on the people within them  
  The subordination of women negatively affects not only the women, but also the men & children in the family in that:  
  a.  subordination stunts the moral & intellectual development of women by restricting their field of activities, pushing them either into self sacrifice or into selfishness & pettiness  
  b.  men, alternatively, either become brutal through their relationships w/ women or turn away from projects of self improvement to pursue the social "consideration" that women desire  
  c.  children are treated as property & raised as either oppressors or the oppressed  
  Mill's concern for the status of women dovetails with the rest of his thought in that associationism, which claims that minds are created by associative laws operating on experience implies that if we change the experiences & upbringing of women & men, then their minds will change  
  Mill's view on socialization & the malleability of the human character enabled him to argue against those who tried to suggest that the subordination of women to men reflected a natural order that women were by nature incapable of equality w/ men  
  If many women were incapable of true friendship w/ noble men, says Mill, that is not a result of their natures, but of their faulty environments  

 
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John Stewart Mill
1806 - 1873

John Stuart Mill was born in Pentonville, UK, the eldest son of the British philosopher and historian James Mill. John Stuart was educated by his father, with the advice and assistance of Jeremy Bentham and Francis Place. His father, a follower of Bentham and an adherent of associationism, had as his explicit aim to create a genius intellect that would carry on the cause of utilitarianism and its implementation after he and Bentham were dead.

Mill was a notably precocious child.  Later, he was introduced to political economy and studied Adam Smith and David Ricardo with his father--ultimately completing their classical economic view of factors of production.  This intensive study however had injurious effects on Mill's and at the age of 21 he suffered a nervous breakdown. His depression eventually began to dissipate, as he began to find solace in the poetry of William Wordsworth. His capacity for emotion resurfaced, Mill remarking that the "cloud gradually drew off".  Mill refused to study at Oxford University or Cambridge University, because he refused to take Anglican orders from the "white devil."

In 1865-8, he was an independent Member of Parliament, Mill advocated easing the burdens on Ireland, and became the first person in Parliament to call for women to be given the right to vote. Mill became a strong advocate of women's rights and such political and social reforms as proportional representation, labor unions, and farm cooperatives. In 1869, he argued for the right of women to vote. In Considerations on Representative Government, Mill called for various reforms of Parliament and voting, especially proportional representation, the Single Transferable Vote, and the extension of suffrage. He was godfather to Bertrand Russell.

In 1851, Mill married Harriet Taylor after 21 years of an intimate friendship. Taylor was married when they met, and their relationship was close but chaste during the years before her first husband died. Brilliant in her own right, Taylor was a significant influence on Mill's work and ideas during both friendship and marriage. His relationship with Harriet Taylor reinforced Mill's advocacy of women's rights. He cites her influence in his final revision of On Liberty, which was published shortly after her death, and she appears to be obliquely referenced in The Subjection of Women. Taylor died in 1858 after developing severe lung congestion, only seven years into her marriage to Mill.  He died in Avignon, France in 1873, and is buried alongside his wife.

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Major Works of John Stewart Mill
 
A System of Logic, 1843 
Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy, 1844 
On Liberty, 1859 
Utilitarianism, 1863 
Auguste Comte and Positivism, 1865
An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy, 1865
The Subjection of Women, 1869 
On Nature, 1874

The End
 
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