John Stuart Mill’s Philosophy: Liberty and Utilitarianism
First Hypothesis: Infallibility and Freedom of Speech
The first hypothesis posits that only an infallible being would be justified in suppressing an opinion. However, even if one acknowledges their own fallibility, taking precautions against error often relies on the prevailing opinion. This means defending one’s opinion based on the supposed infallibility of “everyone.” For those more open-minded, the world is their office or key period. Rulers claim to prevent dangerous opinions to the community out of a sense of duty. However, it must be said that there should be full freedom to contradict or disprove any opinion. Do not claim expertise in decisions, since very few facts speak for themselves. Discussion is essential to interpret the facts. According to Mill, infallibility is when others decide an issue without allowing one to hear what can be said against it, preventing any refutation or complaint against an opinion. Intellectual welfare can now only come from those few bright periods of history that allowed for free discussion and dethroned intellectual despotism.
Second Hypothesis: The Value of Open Debate
The second hypothesis asserts that it is valuable to profess truths without freely and openly attacking them. One can only learn the foundation of a theory when one knows why another theory is false. The absence of discussion not only makes us forget the basics but also the meaning of that which is exercised. Words seem to suggest ideas and become truly inherited, not adopted.
Third Hypothesis: Sharing Truth and Social Pluralism
The third hypothesis states that a suppressed opinion may share the truth with the general opinion. Mill argues that the weaker opinion has more right to be defended and sustained because it represents the aspect of human welfare that is in danger of being lost. When there is no freedom of expression, the most serious consequence is that truths are prohibited from rising against established truths, which are treated as absolute with the same demand for absolutism. This is not relativism but rather a defense against any form of absolutism and an argument for social pluralism, recognizing the value of individual liberty. Pluralism requires parties of order and progress, as there are games of cooperation and competition among individuals, valuing both community and individual values, freedom, and discipline.
Freedom to Organize One’s Life
No one claims that actions are as free as opinions. Since diversity of opinions is useful and beneficial, we must open the possibility of different ways to live according to the diversity of characters, as long as this does not harm others. The development of individuality is not just an ingredient of welfare but the condition of all those things that constitute well-being or happiness, such as civilization, education, and culture. Society, with the pressure of public opinion, has suppressed the best of individuality, so that a person does not ask what they want or what they choose but rather what their situation dictates or what people in their condition do.
The Tyranny of the Majority
In representative democracies, the greatest danger to individual freedom is the influence of the masses. What overrides individuality with formidable power is the importance of public opinion to the state. Public opinion is always oriented toward intolerance and a real despotism of custom, suppressing the forceful characters of the past.
Mill’s Utilitarianism
Moral Phenomena and Utilitarianism
Mill’s moral philosophy posits that moral phenomena have a specific nature in individuals before they are social. It will not base morality on positivism, outside observable facts, but on the tradition of utilitarianism.
The Principle of Utilitarianism
Pleasure and pain are the only positive determinants of human behavior. While other things may be desirable as part of pleasure, as claimed by other moral concepts, they are desirable either for the inherent pleasure they contain or as a means of obtaining pleasure or preventing pain. Utility is the highest instance of any ethical issue, but it is utility in the broadest sense, founded on the permanent interests of man as a progressive being.
Opposition to Individualism
Initially, an opposition to individualism seemed to be corrected by adding “happiness for the greatest number” and, at times, a maximum rating of the individual against the state and against the despotism of habit. However, Mill does not view the individual narrowly, solely in terms of satisfaction and pleasure, but dynamically, in the process of improvement.
Moral Sentiments
Secondly, there is an inclusion of moral sentiments. Mill believes that moral sentiments predate interest. It is not pleasure but the progress of the human spirit that binds the individual with other men. Interest or satisfaction is distinct from happiness. Moral sentiments are not natural but are acquired associations of social moral sentiments. However, they are no less natural for being acquired. The feeling of sympathy or humanity is an autonomous and spontaneous feeling, which explains why men can act without seeking happiness. Thus, the capacity to act consciously without pretending to be happy is the best procedure to achieve happiness.
The Notion of Justice
Justice might seem absolutely different from utility and opposed to any form of convenience or happiness. Therefore, justice is a feeling sui generis. For Stuart Mill, what constitutes the feeling of justice is the natural feeling of revenge, moralized and extended to the demands of social good. Justice is part of utility but more important than anything else.
Conclusion
Mill argues that the only thing desirable as an end is happiness; all other things are but means to achieve this goal. The best way to know this is that everybody agrees (everyone has happiness as the ultimate goal of their lives), and that happiness is good for everyone. This means it is also good for the rest of humanity. Therefore, if we agree that happiness is the only objective among humans, it is clear that we will want something that gives us pleasure and avoid everything that causes us pain.