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MILL's EPISTEMIC LIBERALISM Piers Norris Turner a Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the University of North Carolina At MILL’S EPISTEMIC LIBERALISM Piers Norris Turner A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy. Chapel Hill 2009 Approved by: Gerald J. Postema Thomas E. Hill Jr. Douglas MacLean Bernard Boxill Geoffrey Sayre-McCord ABSTRACT PIERS NORRIS TURNER: Mill’s Epistemic Liberalism (Under the direction of Gerald Postema) In this dissertation, I explore the shape of John Stuart Mill’s political thought in light of his attention to the epistemic quality of social and political arrangements. Specifically, I argue that his classic essay On Liberty can be properly understood only by giving a central place to two key epistemic considerations. First, he is concerned to maintain the social and political conditions that make possible the improvement of our understanding – the conditions required for “discussion and experience”. Social progress is, to Mill’s mind, largely a function of intellectual progress, which is therefore at the core of his political designs, including in On Liberty . Second, Mill is concerned to organize society as well as possible in the here and now toward the achievement of the general good – and a chief element of the organizational part of his political designs is to give expression to the best available expertise on social and political matters. Appreciating the relationship between the progressive and organizational elements of his view allows us to come to a more satisfactory understanding of the liberty (or harm) principle as a part of the argument of On Liberty . As will be become clear in later chapters, on the interpretation I prefer: (1) the main argument of On Liberty is an argument about the conditions required for social progress, which is driven to a great extent by intellectual progress; (2) within those progressive conditions, Mill justifies his liberty principle – according to which ii social interference can be warranted only with regard to “harm to others” – as an organizational principle designed to give expression to expertise in decision-making. iii To all my family, but especially Abby iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my adviser, Gerald Postema, for his unflagging support for me during a difficult time in his own life. I am grateful for his patience, guidance, and friendship. I am also indebted to the rest of my committee, Thomas E. Hill, Jr., Douglas MacLean, Bernard Boxill, and Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, for their many patient suggestions and criticisms. Geoff in particular has been a good friend, and came to my aid at key points during the past year to ensure a successful conclusion to my time at UNC-Chapel Hill. Three other people deserve special thanks with regard to my dissertation work. Gerald Gaus’ visit to our department in 2005 singularly altered the course of my studies. Thereafter, he served as an informal adviser to me, providing both detailed comments and general encouragement. Drew Johnson and David Landy not only were my best friends during graduate school, they were also always available to talk about my work, especially if it would distract me during our competitive Frisbee golf games, or provide an excuse for lunch together at Pepper’s Pizza. Drew especially gave me hours of his time whenever I encountered a thorny problem that needing addressing, and always succeeded in solving it before I even felt capable of expressing it clearly. The philosophy department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a wonderful community. Particular thanks go to Bill Lycan, Ram Neta and David Reeve, who were reliable sources of intellectual inspiration and friendship. Joshua Knobe, John v Roberts, and Matt Kotzen also gave me intellectual or personal encouragement. I have found many good friends among the graduate students in the department. I’d especially like to thank: Matthew Chrisman, Ted Parent, Susanne Sreedhar, Elizabeth Foreman, Andrew Courtwright, Katherine Dimitriou, Dave Porubcansky, Bryce Huebner, Eric Mandelbaum, Meg Wallace, Mark Phelan, Katrina Elliott, Jamin Asay, Clair Morrissey, Emily Given, David Ripley, Elanor Taylor, Patrick Connolly, and Cathay Liu. Friends from before my time in North Carolina have also buoyed me over the years, and I am thankful. From Syracuse to New Haven to San Francisco to Mexico City, I have been lucky to know a lot of remarkable people. I received valuable feedback from audiences at several conferences and departmental colloquia, including Alvin Goldman, Ryan Muldoon, Chase Wrenn, Stuart Rachels, Avram Hiller, Lisa Downing, and Donald Hubin. I’d also like to thank John Robson, who edited Mill’s Collected Works , and the Online Library of Liberty, for putting the Collected Works into a digital format. Above all, however, I am indebted to my family. My parents encouraged and supported me at every point in my personal life and work, and introduced me to the world of books and ideas. Even at 34, I would be proud to be thought of simply as the younger son of David and Nancy Turner. My older brother, Christian, and I grew up doing almost everything together, with him in the lead. He has been maybe my strongest advocate as long as I can remember, whether I deserved it or not. Vicki, my sister-in-law, has offered, besides her regular encouragement, a wonderful example of work-life balance. My extended family – Turner, Sachs, and DeGennaro – has also been a great source of support and pride. In particular I want to thank my Aunt Louise and the Shepards, who vi have played such a big part in my life all these years. I’d also like to remember my grandparents Frank and Marie DeGennaro, who were models of patience, common sense, and devotion to family. I am grateful to my in-laws, the Norrises, whose name I proudly adopted and who are a second family to me. And to Sue Bell, who has been practically a third parent to our children during our time in North Carolina. But over the past 13 years, the person who has made all the difference is my wife, Abby. She and I have now made most of our big life decisions together, and each new step is more rewarding than the last. She is good at everything she does and, even as life gets more complicated, she makes it look easy. I love it that I get to be the one to share it all with her. During the last seven years, while doing whatever I needed to help me finish my Ph.D., she completed her own dissertation (two years before I did), took up a faculty position at UNC, and gave birth to our two children. Those children, Charlotte and Cyrus, are so wonderful to me I don’t know what to say. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………xi Chapter I. SCIENCE, SOCIETY, AND ROUSSEAU....................................... 1 Section 1: Introduction ...................................................................... 1 Section 2: The Utility of Knowledge ................................................ 4 Section 3: Rousseau Against Science and Philosophy ...................... 13 Section 4: Rousseau’s Near-infallibilism .......................................... 25 Section 5: On Ideal Science and True Philosophers ......................... 28 Section 6: Mill on the Assumption of Infallibility ............................ 32 Section 7: Conclusion........................................................................ 43 II. INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT AND LIBERAL SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS .......................................................................... 45 Section 1: Introduction ...................................................................... 45 Section 2: The State of Nature and the Value of Despotism ............. 48 Section 3: Cultivation through Education and Public Opinion ......... 55 Section 4: Taking Precautions Against Fallibility............................. 61 Section 5: Two Arguments for Individuality .................................... 64 Section 6: “Mental and Moral Progression” ..................................... 71 Section 7: The Progressive Aim of Government .............................. 73 viii III. ORGANIZATION, JURISDICTION, AND EXPERTISE............... 77 Section 1: Introduction ...................................................................... 77 Section 2: Expertise, Identity of Interest, and the Rejection of Direct Democracy ............................................................................. 83 Section 3: Universal Suffrage, Plural Voting, and Proportional Representation ................................................................................... 87 Section 4: Pledges and Legislative Commissions ............................. 90 Section 5: Jurisdiction and Justification ............................................ 96 IV. JURISDICTION, JUSTIFICATION, AND MILL’S ANTI-PATERNALISM .................................................................... 102 Section 1: Introduction ...................................................................... 102 Section 2: Anti-paternalism, the Liberty Principle, and Individuality ...................................................................................... 107 Section 3: Individuality, Rule-Consequentialism, and the Absolutism Problem .......................................................................... 111 Section 4: Expertise as a Basis of Jurisdiction .................................. 118 Section 5: The Liberty Principle within Mill’s Political Philosophy........................................................................... 124
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