author - "John Stuart Mill"
Description
John Stuart Mill was a prolific and well-regarded author and philosopher in his day, but perhaps his most enduring work is On Liberty, an essay developed over several years and with significant input from his wife. In it, he applies his views on the Utilitarian ethical theory to systems of society and governance. The result became one of the most influential essays on liberal political thought in modern history.
In On Liberty Mill addresses such familiar concepts as freedom of speech, the importance of individuality, and the limits of society’s influence on the individual. He caps the discussion with an application of these principles to problems of the day, including education and the economy.
nd unimportant compared with the agreements; and he has not only enriched the exposition by many applications and illustrative details, but has appended to it a minute and very valuable discussion of the logical principles specially applicable to each of the sciences--a task for which the encyclopedical character of his knowledge peculiarly qualified him. I have in several instances made use of his exposition to improve my own, by adopting, and occasionally by controverting, matter contained in his treatise.
The longest of the additions belongs to the chapter on Causation, and is a discussion of the question how far, if at all, the ordinary mode of stating the law of Cause and Effect requires modification to adapt it to the new doctrine of the Conservation of Force--a point still more fully and elaborately treated in Mr. Bain's work.
INTRODUCTION.
§ 1. There is as great diversity among authors in the modes which they have adopted of defining logic, as in their treatment of the d
ypotheses are real facts with some of their circumstances exaggerated or omitted 255
3. Some of the first principles of geometry are axioms, and these are not hypothetical 256
4. --but are experimental truths 258
5. An objection answered 261
6. Dr. Whewell's opinions on axioms examined 264
CHAPTER VI.
The same Subject continued.
Sec. 1. All deductive sciences are inductive 281
2. The propositions of the science of number are not verbal, but generalizations from experience 284
3. In what sense hypothetical 289
4. The characteristic property of demonstrative science is to be hypothetical 290
5. Definition of demonstrative evidence 292
CHAPTER VII.
Examination of some Opinions opposed to the preceding doctrines.
Sec. 1. Doctrine of the Universal Postulate 294
2. The test of inconceivability does not
things from the thoughts awakened in me by the speculations of St. Simonians; but it was made a living principle, pervading and animating the book, by my wife's promptings."[4] The part which is italicised is noticeable. Here, as elsewhere, Mill thinks out the matter by himself; the concrete form of the thoughts is suggested or prompted by the wife. Apart from this "general tone," Mill tells us that there was a specific contribution. "The chapter which has had a greater influence on opinion than all the rest, that on the Probable Future of the Labouring Classes, is entirely due to her. In the first draft of the book that chapter did not exist. She pointed out the need of such a chapter, and the extreme imperfection of the book without it; she was the cause of my writing it." From this it would appear that she gave Mill that tendency to Socialism which, while it lends a progressive spirit to his speculations on politics, at the same time does not manifestly accord with his earlier advocacy of peasant prop
Description
John Stuart Mill was a prolific and well-regarded author and philosopher in his day, but perhaps his most enduring work is On Liberty, an essay developed over several years and with significant input from his wife. In it, he applies his views on the Utilitarian ethical theory to systems of society and governance. The result became one of the most influential essays on liberal political thought in modern history.
In On Liberty Mill addresses such familiar concepts as freedom of speech, the importance of individuality, and the limits of society’s influence on the individual. He caps the discussion with an application of these principles to problems of the day, including education and the economy.
nd unimportant compared with the agreements; and he has not only enriched the exposition by many applications and illustrative details, but has appended to it a minute and very valuable discussion of the logical principles specially applicable to each of the sciences--a task for which the encyclopedical character of his knowledge peculiarly qualified him. I have in several instances made use of his exposition to improve my own, by adopting, and occasionally by controverting, matter contained in his treatise.
The longest of the additions belongs to the chapter on Causation, and is a discussion of the question how far, if at all, the ordinary mode of stating the law of Cause and Effect requires modification to adapt it to the new doctrine of the Conservation of Force--a point still more fully and elaborately treated in Mr. Bain's work.
INTRODUCTION.
§ 1. There is as great diversity among authors in the modes which they have adopted of defining logic, as in their treatment of the d
ypotheses are real facts with some of their circumstances exaggerated or omitted 255
3. Some of the first principles of geometry are axioms, and these are not hypothetical 256
4. --but are experimental truths 258
5. An objection answered 261
6. Dr. Whewell's opinions on axioms examined 264
CHAPTER VI.
The same Subject continued.
Sec. 1. All deductive sciences are inductive 281
2. The propositions of the science of number are not verbal, but generalizations from experience 284
3. In what sense hypothetical 289
4. The characteristic property of demonstrative science is to be hypothetical 290
5. Definition of demonstrative evidence 292
CHAPTER VII.
Examination of some Opinions opposed to the preceding doctrines.
Sec. 1. Doctrine of the Universal Postulate 294
2. The test of inconceivability does not
things from the thoughts awakened in me by the speculations of St. Simonians; but it was made a living principle, pervading and animating the book, by my wife's promptings."[4] The part which is italicised is noticeable. Here, as elsewhere, Mill thinks out the matter by himself; the concrete form of the thoughts is suggested or prompted by the wife. Apart from this "general tone," Mill tells us that there was a specific contribution. "The chapter which has had a greater influence on opinion than all the rest, that on the Probable Future of the Labouring Classes, is entirely due to her. In the first draft of the book that chapter did not exist. She pointed out the need of such a chapter, and the extreme imperfection of the book without it; she was the cause of my writing it." From this it would appear that she gave Mill that tendency to Socialism which, while it lends a progressive spirit to his speculations on politics, at the same time does not manifestly accord with his earlier advocacy of peasant prop