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Single Idea 20515

[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 4. Social Utilitarianism ]

Full Idea

For Mill the greatest happiness will be achieved by giving people a private sphere of interests where no intervention is permitted, while allowing a public sphere where intervention is possible, but only on utilitarian grounds.

Gist of Idea

Maximise happiness by an area of strict privacy, and an area of utilitarian interventions

Source

report of John Stuart Mill (On Liberty [1857]) by Jonathan Wolff - An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Rev) 4 'Liberty'

Book Ref

Wolff,Jonathan: 'An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Rev)' [OUP 2006], p.119

A Reaction

This is probably standard liberal practice nowadays. Freely consenting adult sexual activity is agreed to be wholly private. At least some lip-service is paid to increasing happiness when government intervenes.

The 108 ideas from John Stuart Mill

7076 Mill wondered if he would be happy if all his aims were realised, and answered no [Mill, by Critchley]
20515 Maximise happiness by an area of strict privacy, and an area of utilitarian interventions [Mill, by Wolff,J]
20517 Utilitarianism values liberty, but guides us on which ones we should have or not have [Mill, by Wolff,J]
20516 Mill defends freedom as increasing happiness, but maybe it is an intrinsic good [Wolff,J on Mill]
7215 True freedom is pursuing our own good, while not impeding others [Mill]
7214 Ethics rests on utility, which is the permanent progressive interests of people [Mill]
7210 The will of the people is that of the largest or most active part of the people [Mill]
7211 Prevention of harm to others is the only justification for exercising power over people [Mill]
7213 Liberty arises at the point where people can freely and equally discuss things [Mill]
7212 Individuals have sovereignty over their own bodies and minds [Mill]
7216 The ethics of the Gospel has been supplemented by barbarous Old Testament values [Mill]
7217 The main argument for freedom is that interference with it is usually misguided [Mill]
7231 The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it [Mill]
7227 It is evil to give a government any more power than is necessary [Mill]
7230 Aim for the maximum dissemination of power consistent with efficiency [Mill]
7229 People who transact their own business will also have the initiative to control their government [Mill]
7220 Restraint for its own sake is an evil [Mill]
7222 It is a crime for someone with a violent disposition to get drunk [Mill]
7228 Individuals often do things better than governments [Mill]
7218 Individuals are not accountable for actions which only concern themselves [Mill]
7221 Blocking entry to an unsafe bridge does not infringe liberty, since no one wants unsafe bridges [Mill]
7223 Pimping and running a gambling-house are on the border between toleration and restraint [Mill]
7219 Society can punish actions which it believes to be prejudicial to others [Mill]
7226 Benefits performed by individuals, not by government, help also to educate them [Mill]
7224 We need individual opinions and conduct, and State education is a means to prevent that [Mill]
7225 It is a crime to create a being who lacks the ordinary chances of a desirable existence [Mill]
20508 How people vote should be on public record, so they can be held accountable [Mill, by Wolff,J]
20504 People can only participate in decisions in small communities, so representatives are needed [Mill]
20505 Direct democracy is inexperience judging experience, and ignorance judging knowledge [Mill]
20507 Voting is a strict duty, like jury service, and must only be aimed at the public good [Mill]
17091 Explanation is fitting of facts into ever more general patterns of regularity [Mill, by Ruben]
12411 Mill is too imprecise, and is restricted to simple arithmetic [Kitcher on Mill]
5656 Empirical theories of arithmetic ignore zero, limit our maths, and need probability to get started [Frege on Mill]
17086 Surprisingly, empiricists before Mill ignore explanation, which seems to transcend experience [Mill, by Ruben]
4944 Mill says names have denotation but not connotation [Mill, by Kripke]
7762 Proper names are just labels for persons or objects, and the meaning is the object [Mill, by Lycan]
8625 What physical facts could underlie 0 or 1, or very large numbers? [Frege on Mill]
5201 Mill says logic and maths is induction based on a very large number of instances [Mill, by Ayer]
9360 If two black and two white objects in practice produced five, what colour is the fifth one? [Lewis,CI on Mill]
8345 A cause is the total of all the conditions which inevitably produce the result [Mill]
10391 Causes and conditions are not distinct, because we select capriciously from among them [Mill]
17895 Combining two distinct assertions does not necessarily lead to a single 'complex proposition' [Mill]
11156 The essence is that without which a thing can neither be, nor be conceived to be [Mill]
9888 Mill mistakes particular applications as integral to arithmetic, instead of general patterns [Dummett on Mill]
9796 Things possess the properties of numbers, as quantity, and as countable parts [Mill]
9794 There are no such things as numbers in the abstract [Mill]
9795 Numbers have generalised application to entities (such as bodies or sounds) [Mill]
9798 Different parcels made from three pebbles produce different actual sensations [Mill]
9797 '2 pebbles and 1 pebble' and '3 pebbles' name the same aggregation, but different facts [Mill]
9799 3=2+1 presupposes collections of objects ('Threes'), which may be divided thus [Mill]
9800 Arithmetic is based on definitions, and Sums of equals are equal, and Differences of equals are equal [Mill]
9801 Numbers must be assumed to have identical units, as horses are equalised in 'horse-power' [Mill]
16845 The whole theory of induction rests on causes [Mill]
14547 The strict cause is the total positive and negative conditions which ensure the consequent [Mill]
14545 A cause is an antecedent which invariably and unconditionally leads to a phenomenon [Mill]
12190 Necessity is what will be, despite any alternative suppositions whatever [Mill]
16805 Causal inference is by spotting either Agreements or Differences [Mill, by Lipton]
16835 The Methods of Difference and of Agreement are forms of inference to the best explanation [Mill, by Lipton]
16843 Mill's methods (Difference,Agreement,Residues,Concomitance,Hypothesis) don't nail induction [Mill, by Lipton]
9806 Whatever is made up of parts is made up of parts of those parts [Mill]
9803 We can't easily distinguish 102 horses from 103, but we could arrange them to make it obvious [Mill]
9802 Numbers denote physical properties of physical phenomena [Mill]
9804 Arithmetical results give a mode of formation of a given number [Mill]
9805 12 is the cube of 1728 means pebbles can be aggregated a certain way [Mill]
9417 What are the fewest propositions from which all natural uniformities could be inferred? [Mill]
8377 Causation is just invariability of succession between every natural fact and a preceding fact [Mill]
16860 Inductive generalisation is more reliable than one of its instances; they can't all be wrong [Mill]
16859 Most perception is one-tenth observation and nine-tenths inference [Mill]
9079 We can focus our minds on what is common to a whole class, neglecting other aspects [Mill]
9078 The study of the nature of Abstract Ideas does not belong to logic, but to a different science [Mill]
9080 General conceptions are a necessary preliminary to Induction [Mill]
9081 We don't recognise comparisons by something in our minds; the concepts result from the comparisons [Mill]
9082 Clear concepts result from good observation, extensive experience, and accurate memory [Mill]
9624 Numbers are a very general property of objects [Mill, by Brown,JR]
4773 Mill's regularity theory of causation is based on an effect preceded by a conjunction of causes [Mill, by Psillos]
8741 Numbers must be of something; they don't exist as abstractions [Mill]
4775 In Mill's 'Method of Agreement' cause is the common factor in a range of different cases [Mill, by Psillos]
4776 In Mill's 'Method of Difference' the cause is what stops the effect when it is removed [Mill, by Psillos]
10427 All names are names of something, real or imaginary [Mill]
22623 Necessity can only mean what must be, without conditions of any kind [Mill]
8742 The only axioms needed are for equality, addition, and successive numbers [Mill, by Shapiro]
21335 Belief that an afterlife is required for justice is an admission that this life is very unjust [Mill]
21329 Nature dispenses cruelty with no concern for either mercy or justice [Mill]
21328 Killing is a human crime, but nature kills everyone, and often with great tortures [Mill]
21331 Hurricanes, locusts, floods and blight can starve a million people to death [Mill]
21330 Nature makes childbirth a miserable experience, often leading to the death of the mother [Mill]
21332 We don't get a love of 'order' from nature - which is thoroughly chaotic [Mill]
21333 Evil comes from good just as often as good comes from evil [Mill]
21334 No necessity ties an omnipotent Creator, so he evidently wills human misery [Mill]
6697 Moral rules protecting human welfare are more vital than local maxims [Mill]
7202 The English believe in the task of annihilating evil for the victory of good [Nietzsche on Mill]
3763 Ultimate goods such as pleasure can never be proved to be good [Mill]
3767 Motive shows the worth of the agent, but not of the action [Mill]
3765 Only pleasure and freedom from pain are desirable as ends [Mill]
5935 Mill's qualities of pleasure is an admission that there are other good states of mind than pleasure [Ross on Mill]
3766 Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied [Mill]
3764 Actions are right if they promote pleasure, wrong if they promote pain [Mill]
3768 Orthodox morality is the only one which feels obligatory [Mill]
3769 With early training, any absurdity or evil may be given the power of conscience [Mill]
3771 Virtues only have value because they achieve some further end [Mill]
3772 The will, in the beginning, is entirely produced by desire [Mill]
3770 General happiness is only desirable because individuals desire their own happiness [Mill]
3773 No individual has the right to receive our benevolence [Mill]
3776 Utilitarianism only works if everybody has a totally equal right to happiness [Mill]
3774 Rights are a matter of justice, not of benevolence [Mill]
3775 A right is a valid claim to society's protection [Mill]
3583 External objects are permanent possibilities of sensation [Mill]
3537 I judge others' feeling by analogy with my body and behaviour [Mill]