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Flashcards in On Liberty Deck (14)
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1
Q

Mill’s Philosophical Commitments

A

1) utilitarianism
2) perfectionism
3) liberalism (individual freedom and liberty)

2
Q

Tensions among Mill’s Philosophical Commitments

A

1) Liberalism v. utilitarianism
banning of materials that could upset the common good
suppressing individual freedoms to better the general good
2) liberalism v perfectionism
suppressing advertisements that promote things detrimental to the body/soul
3) utilitarianism v. perfectionism
dislodging people from positions of comfort (i.e. religious bigot) to further personal growth.

3
Q

Mill’s Liberalism

A

1) legal recognition of basic liberties
2) popular constitution checks
3) warns of tyranny of the majority
4) line between individual freedom and social control should be drawn by the Principle of Liberty

4
Q

Principle of Liberty

A

1) limited in application to mentally competent adults
2) freedom of mind (liberty of conscience, thought, feeling, speech, etc.)
3) personal freedom (liberty of pursuits, tastes, life plans, freedom of action)
4) freedom of association (free to form groups, etc)
5) based on utility

5
Q

Mill’s (plural) perfectionism

A

1) qualitative hedonism is an attempt for perfectionism within utilitarianism
2) higher pleasures are linked to “higher faculties”
3) Objective theory of human good
cultivation higher pleasures superior to pursuit of lower pleasure

6
Q

Reconciling his Phi commitments

A

1) utilitarianism and perfectionism with qualitative hedonism
2) builds liberalism into perfectionism (only freely-chosen development valued)
3) Faith in human progress under liberalism (freedom + education = development)

7
Q

Four Grounds for Free Expression/opinion

A

1) silencing alternative truths may leas to falsehood
2) Silenced opinions may be wrong, but may contain parts of the truth useful to the convention
(1 and 2 assume received opinion is false)
(3 and 4 assume received opinion is true)
3) competitive arguments develop capacities of thought
4) develops capacities for action
5) unchallenged opinions will become “dead dogmas”

8
Q

“dead dogma”

A

1) an opinion that has either lost its meaning or its ability to cause action
2) people who practice dead dogmas either don’t understand it or are unaware of its meaning
3) loses most of its weight, more likely to be diobeyed

9
Q

Individuality and perfection

A

1) choosing life paths employs all faculties
2) human nature is an evolving work of art
3) any “good being” created human faculties so that they could be fully developed

10
Q

purse story

A

1) story used to show that the pain others have for other people’s refusal to accept their wrong belief (religious bigots) is irrelevant
2) the thief’s pleasure/pain is irrelevant because the purse was not his
3) sidgwick holds this makes mill not a utilitarian

11
Q

Applications of the Principle of Liberty

A

1) Mill applies prince of lib to public policy
2) competition (labor, product markets)
3) Citizen participation in local government( direct democracy)
4) Roles of mill’s perfectionism to the point of welfare considerations

12
Q

Justifiable Paternalism

A

1) Mill holds that in some cases it might be best for utility to restrain individual freedom
2) example of man falling into river who doesn’t actually want to fall into river
3) application of princ of lib is conditional on individual being: well-informed, mature, sober, fully reflective
4) people might need to be restrained until they are educated to make decisions for their own benefit

13
Q

Mill on Alchohols

A

1) condemns policies making alcohol unobtainable or difficult to obtain
2) drunkenness punishable with prev. conviction or failure to do legal duties while drunk
3) promotes prevention of the advocation of intemperance
4) taxable to reduce externalities but not to ounish or make alcohol more difficult to obtain

14
Q

limiting procreation

A

1) Mill open to limiting procreation to prevent harm to the standing population