Robert Devigne
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300112429
- eISBN:
- 9780300133905
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300112429.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter concludes the book with a comprehensive view of the ideas and arguments that John Stuart Mill encountered, written of, and commented upon regarding his own political philosophy. Mill ...
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This chapter concludes the book with a comprehensive view of the ideas and arguments that John Stuart Mill encountered, written of, and commented upon regarding his own political philosophy. Mill believed that societies need to create institutions and practices that contribute to the development of human faculties, the moral education of society, and human excellence—whereas the more traditional liberals of Anglo-Scottish thought focused instead of protecting a private sphere for human conduct. Also, the chapter discusses a riddle in Mill's political philosophy that has long vexed analysts. Mill, for one, is an advocate of freedoms of speech, religion, women, assembly, self-government, the market, and emigration. On the other hand, Mill is also known for arguments that transcend liberal concerns about protecting the individual from state and social domination. In response to these two currents in Mill's thought, contemporary commentators have developed two schools of thought: traditionalist and revisionist. Thus, the chapter uses these two approaches in order to further explore Mill's political philosophy.Less
This chapter concludes the book with a comprehensive view of the ideas and arguments that John Stuart Mill encountered, written of, and commented upon regarding his own political philosophy. Mill believed that societies need to create institutions and practices that contribute to the development of human faculties, the moral education of society, and human excellence—whereas the more traditional liberals of Anglo-Scottish thought focused instead of protecting a private sphere for human conduct. Also, the chapter discusses a riddle in Mill's political philosophy that has long vexed analysts. Mill, for one, is an advocate of freedoms of speech, religion, women, assembly, self-government, the market, and emigration. On the other hand, Mill is also known for arguments that transcend liberal concerns about protecting the individual from state and social domination. In response to these two currents in Mill's thought, contemporary commentators have developed two schools of thought: traditionalist and revisionist. Thus, the chapter uses these two approaches in order to further explore Mill's political philosophy.
Robert Faulkner
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300123937
- eISBN:
- 9780300150278
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300123937.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter aims to outline the underlying dynamic of modern political theories at work in the stories, complicated doubts, and paradoxical denials of John Rawls and Hannah Arendt. The chapter then ...
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This chapter aims to outline the underlying dynamic of modern political theories at work in the stories, complicated doubts, and paradoxical denials of John Rawls and Hannah Arendt. The chapter then sketches a representative early modern critique of virtue and especially superior virtue (Hobbes's), the leading attempt to recover morality by a teaching of equal dignity (Kant's), and finally how Nietzschean thought brought about the relativism and postmodern efflorescence—all of which would create the sense of skepticism about human excellence. Thomas Hobbes began this attack by targeting ancient, biblical virtue, as well as the ancients' praise of magnanimity. What Aristotle defined as magnanimity, Hobbes would refer to as foolish and dangerous “vanity.” Thus this chapter outlines the possible origins of this modern skepticism by looking at its critics and their attacking theories on the idea and concept of greatness in an individual.Less
This chapter aims to outline the underlying dynamic of modern political theories at work in the stories, complicated doubts, and paradoxical denials of John Rawls and Hannah Arendt. The chapter then sketches a representative early modern critique of virtue and especially superior virtue (Hobbes's), the leading attempt to recover morality by a teaching of equal dignity (Kant's), and finally how Nietzschean thought brought about the relativism and postmodern efflorescence—all of which would create the sense of skepticism about human excellence. Thomas Hobbes began this attack by targeting ancient, biblical virtue, as well as the ancients' praise of magnanimity. What Aristotle defined as magnanimity, Hobbes would refer to as foolish and dangerous “vanity.” Thus this chapter outlines the possible origins of this modern skepticism by looking at its critics and their attacking theories on the idea and concept of greatness in an individual.
