John Stuart Mill: Knowledge, Society, and Politics

Posted on Feb 15, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Knowledge

The generalization, as a process to convert observable facts into laws or principles, is carried out by inference (connected to understanding). There are two types of inference:

  • Deductive: Passage from one concept to another (cause-effect relationships).
  • Inductive: Passing from particular data to general concepts.

Inferences are specified in four methods of science:

  1. Matching Method: Collecting data for various observations of the phenomenon, eliminating what is not common in all of them.
  2. Difference Method: Picking two observations, one where the phenomenon being studied is present and another where it is absent, eliminating what is common.
  3. Method of Concomitant Variation: Observing the phenomenon and seeing in every variation or change what also varies concomitantly.
  4. Method of Residues: Removal of inductions that are not the cause of the phenomenon being studied.

How can we guarantee that knowledge is correct? Knowledge based on observation of facts has the disadvantage that it is limited. Mill’s solution is to preach the “uniformity of nature.”

A) The laws of nature are elements allowing a fixed and stable order in nature (in a coherent sequence of events): Nature varies according to an unchanging pattern.

B) Discovering these laws through experience refers to a fundamental law: the law of causality: the state of the universe at a given time depends on what it was in the previous one. The greater the knowledge of current events, the better we will be able to predict the effects -> look to the future. Mill’s domain. The law of causality gives validity to our inductions, but not when it is based (hypothesis of a limited scope).

The Sciences of Man

The most remarkable fact that science can treat is the human being. The study of humans will highlight three dimensions (three sciences):

  1. Psychology: A study of the association of ideas (how we think).
  2. Ethology: A study of the laws of character formation and behavior.
  3. Sociobiology: Studies of the laws governing social phenomena (how we act collectively).

For Mill, science tells us what human beings are, but not everything that can be. Humans can guide their lives freely, setting up goals or purposes (what they want).

Political Liberalism

Utilitarian morality affects not only the individual but also the collective (biased toward justice and freedom).

  • Justice -> How to make everyone’s happiness accessible.
  • Freedom -> How to ensure individual happiness within the wider society.

Justice

Establishing and protecting the rights of individuals.

Distinction:

  1. Laws: The law that provides directly (e.g., age of majority at 18).
  2. Moral: Those that belong to the individual but the law does not specify (e.g., citizen participation in politics).

They are the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Freedom

Initially, politics is to allow the fit of individual freedom and authority (power) necessary to organize society.

A) What is the fit? We must accept that some individuals have certain obligations to the protection offered by society. Everyone must meet two basic rules:

  • Not to prevent the interests that are considered subjective rights of others (that belong to individuals).
  • Meet the corresponding work and sacrifices to the defense forces of society.

B) The pursuit of happiness involves the individual settings of their own freedom. We must distinguish between:

  1. Actions that affect oneself.
  2. Actions that affect other people.

Politics: Firstly, general happiness is not what counts most when evaluating a political regime, but its ability to foster self-development. Everyone knows that individuals seek to be happy and to be effective without interference. The focal point of Mill’s social and political thought is the individual. This first right (to decide autonomously on one’s own life) sets impassable limits of government: its legitimacy begins once the sphere of private life is secured.

Utilitarianism

  1. Establish the principle that must guide our actions, that is, determining what our behavior must be, that determines what is good and correct.
  2. The principle for Mill should be useful. Correct actions, well, those are useful in achieving happiness, and those that are bad are against happiness.
  3. What does happiness consist of? Happiness = pleasure and absence of pain. The quantitative aspect is more important than the qualitative aspect.