6.5. Mill's Utilitarianism and Democracy
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109-120 Tucker Book Review
BOOK REVIEWS Libertarianism—A Primer. By David Boaz. New York: The Free Press, 1997. Libertarianism: A Reader. David Boaz, ed. New York: The Free Press, 1997. What It Means to Be A Libertarian. By Charles Murray. New York: Broadway Books, 1997. Reviewed by Jeffrey Tucker* he American anti-statist intellectual tradition includes a wide variety of thinkers, from left utopians to secessionist T agrarians to right anarchists. Seemingly small theoret- ical differences between them can produce hugely different an- swers to the all-important question: what is to be done? Murray Rothbard’s primary contribution to this tradition was to firmly tie anti-statism to a strict adherence to property rights, rights which the state tramples on by its very existence, and rights which are best protected and enforced by private parties. The answer to the question of what is to be done follows clearly: gov- ernment power must be curbed and eliminated, to be replaced by private association. But modern libertarians haven’t always fol- lowed up on this radical Rothbardian project. Some libertarian writers—let’s call them left-libertarians—prefer to concentrate on the personal liberties associated with this political doctrine, while submerging property-centered social theory and a radical critique of the State, especially of the imperial state, within a larger laundry list of other aspects of libertarian policy. David Boaz’s primer may not be the prime example of ap- plied left-libertarianism (the post-Goldwater works of Karl Hess better deserve this moniker) but it nonetheless fits comfort- ably in that category. The reader is left with no doubt about where Boaz stands on lifestyle issues (drugs, sex, speech, etc.) and the policy concerns of the punditry class (how this or that program can be improved), but is left to speculate on precisely how strict Boaz’s utopia would be with regard to the protection of property rights, or how or on what level of society those rights would be enforced. -
Hauerwas and the Law: Framing a Productive Conversation
07_KAVENY (DO NOT DELETE) 11/19/2012 3:59 PM HAUERWAS AND THE LAW: FRAMING A PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATION CATHLEEN KAVENY* I INTRODUCTION The title of this symposium is “Theological Argument in Law: Engaging with Stanley Hauerwas.” When I discussed the project with colleagues specializing in Christian theological ethics, they were interested, even intrigued. Truth be told, however, they were also rather skeptical. Why the skepticism? It is universally acknowledged that Hauerwas is both engaged and engaging, actively involved in wide-ranging conversations with academics, pastors, doctors, and—yes—even lawyers. Furthermore, no one would deny that arguments rooted in the Christian theological tradition have made their way into American law over the years. Indeed, in 1892, a Supreme Court opinion unselfconsciously proclaimed that “this is a Christian nation.”1 “A Christian nation”? Ah-ha! Many Christian theologians would say there is the problem in a nutshell. Throughout his career, Stanley Hauerwas has tirelessly protested all efforts to embed Christianity, as either an intellectual system or social group, into the framework of worldly power. Such efforts, in his view, inevitably corrupt the thought and the practices of Christians, twisting both toward the goal of sustaining the kingdoms of this world, rather than building the kingdom of God that was inaugurated by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Unlike the “peaceable kingdom” of Jesus, earthly kingdoms are inherently built on violence—not only the violence of warfare, but also the threats of coercive force that ultimately and undeniably back any system of positive law.2 The law, in other words, describes and implements the operating system of the strikingly unpeaceable secular world. -
Place and Mobilities in the Maritime World: the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in the Caribbean, C
1 PLACE AND MOBILITIES IN THE MARITIME WORLD: THE ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY IN THE CARIBBEAN, C. 1838 TO 1914 Anyaa Anim-Addo Royal Holloway, University of London PhD Human Geography 2 Declaration of Authorship I, Anyaa Anim-Addo, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ______________________________________________________ Date: ______________________________________________________ 3 Abstract The empirical subject of this thesis is the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSPC), a British-based steamship company that served the Caribbean from 1842, and extended operations into South America in 1851. I construct a postcolonial historical geography of the RMSPC as it operated in the ‘expanded’ post-emancipation Caribbean. By analysing the steamship service as a network rather than as a ‘tool’ of empire, I foreground the mobilities constructed by this Company, and explore how these mobilities impacted upon maritime places in the Caribbean. In so doing, I develop a ‘tidalectic’ approach to the RMSPC’s past, by expanding upon Kamau Brathwaite’s concept. I argue that tidalectics, in intersection with the ‘new mobilities paradigm’, contributes to an advance in understandings of maritime history, since together they facilitate mobile examinations of the relationship between sea and shore. To develop analysis of the RMSPC’s maritime mobilities, four substantive case studies are presented. The first case study focuses on the RMSPC’s ports-of-call, as mapped by the scheme of routes. The second such chapter considers the steamship itself as place, particularly with reference to social and cultural dynamics. -
View That Government Should Interfere Minimally in the Economic Affairs of a Geographical Space and Leave the Decisions to Market Forces
Vol: 1 Social Work Bulletin June, 2020 A Social Democratic Liberal Perspective on the Development of Education Policy (Reflections from the West) Amira Wali1 Dr Shazia Manzoor2 * Abstract Every developmental activity has a context, a historical background, enabling factors and political will. No policy develops in vacuum. It is pertinent to understand the economic situation of times in order to trace and contextualize the development of policies that were formed and the intentions of the governments behind formulation of such policies. The economic system is in a crisis for sure when unemployment soars high. Educational policies, with their many positive externalities, have also been developed in response to certain climates that were of urgent nature. This paper discusses the shift of thought related to employment situation from classical liberalism to social democratic liberalism, paving a way for the intervention of state authorities by assuming the role of welfare state and the consequent repercussions on the Education policy. The paper deliberates that such shifts and the proactiveness of government intervention is relevant in the present times of globalization, as well. 1. Introduction In order to understand the evolution of the economic thought, it is important to start from the start. The Classical liberalism thought had the basic assumptions of liberalism. These were essentially the free market, laisse faire, and the minimal interference of state for maximization of self interests. The basis of classical liberalism was the classical economic theory (Name invented by Marx). This theory was pioneered by Ricardo, Mills, Marshal, Edgeworth and Pigou. One would question the name- Why classical? The answer is that this theory comprised of an established body of doctrine which forms the core of analytical material presented in the principles of economics text books prior to 1947. -
Bishop Berkeley Exorcises the Infinite
TWELVE Bishop Berkeley Exorcises the Infinite It all began simply enough when Molyneux asked the wonderful question whether a person born blind, now able to see, would recognize by sight what he or she knew by touch (Davis 1960). After George Berkeley elaborated an answer, that we learn to perceive by means of heuristics, the foundations of contemporary mathematics were in ruins. Contemporary mathematicians waved their hands and changed the subject.1 Berkeley’s answer received a much more positive response from economists. Adam Smith, in particular, seized upon Berkeley’s doctrine that we learn to perceive distance to build an elabo- rate system in which one learns to perceive one’s self-interest.2 Perhaps because older histories of mathematics are a positive hindrance in helping us under- stand the importance of Berkeley’s argument against in‹nitesimals,3 its conse- quences for economics have passed unnoticed. If in‹nitesimal numbers are ruled 1. The mathematically decisive event that changed the situation and let historians appreciate the past was Abraham Robinson’s development of nonstandard analysis. “The vigorous attack directed by Berkeley against the foundations of the Calculus in the forms then proposed is, in the ‹rst place, a brilliant exposure of their logical inconsistencies. But in criticizing in‹nitesimals of all kinds, English or continental, Berkeley also quotes with approval a passage in which Locke rejects the actual in‹nite. It is in fact not surprising that a philosopher in whose system perception plays the central role, should have been unwilling to accept in‹nitary entities” (Robinson 1974, 280–81). -
Kant's Doctrine of Religion As Political Philosophy
Kant's Doctrine of Religion as Political Philosophy Author: Phillip David Wodzinski Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/987 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2009 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of Political Science KANT’S DOCTRINE OF RELIGION AS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY a dissertation by PHILLIP WODZINSKI submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2009 © copyright by PHILLIP DAVID WODZINSKI 2009 ABSTRACT Kant’s Doctrine of Religion as Political Philosophy Phillip Wodzinski Advisor: Susan Shell, Ph.D. Through a close reading of Immanuel Kant’s late book, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, the dissertation clarifies the political element in Kant’s doctrine of religion and so contributes to a wider conception of his political philosophy. Kant’s political philosophy of religion, in addition to extending and further animating his moral doctrine, interprets religion in such a way as to give the Christian faith a moral grounding that will make possible, and even be an agent of, the improvement of social and political life. The dissertation emphasizes the wholeness and structure of Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason as a book, for the teaching of the book is not exhausted by the articulation of its doctrine but also includes both the fact and the manner of its expression: the reader learns most fully from Kant by giving attention to the structure and tone of the book as well as to its stated content and argumentation. -
George Berkeley Every Virtue Under Heaven
1 TO BISHOP GEORGE BERKELEY EVERY VIRTUE UNDER HEAVEN “I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation. Between us and everybody else on this planet.” — Ouisa, in John Guare’s “SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION” 1. Cf. Pope’s line “To Berkeley every Virtue under Heaven.” HDT WHAT? INDEX GEORGE BERKELEY GEORGE BERKELEY 1677 The Reverend Cotton Mather, the Reverend Ezra Stiles, and George Berkeley have all tried to decipher the messages chiseled into the 55-square-foot westward-facing flat surface of a 40-ton piece of feldspathic sandstone, a glacial erratic noticed at this timeperiod upside down at the tidewater line on the left bank of the Taunton River at Berkley, Massachusetts, that would become known as the Dighton Rock. Although the sandstone chunk was above water only four hours per day, Stiles of Yale College would convince himself that the inscription on the seventy-degree sloping flat surface was made up of ancient Phoenician petroglyphs. “Dighton Rock is like the rocks you see along the highways, filled with graffiti,” says Jim Whitall. “It’s where everyone wanted to leave a message, and it’s the first stone in America that anyone paid any attention to. It was a bulletin-board for ancients, Native Americans, and colonials alike.” The rock with the mysterious hieroglyphs was moved to dry land a few years ago by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a building was built around it to preserve the inscriptions. Winter ice and constant submergence at high tide under the Taunton River began obliterating some of the older markings. -
NEW Spirit and Secularity
NAHME - CHAPTER 3 DRAFT- NOT FOR CITATION Chapter 3 Race, Religion, and Identity: the (Theo-)Politics of Kantianism and the Predicament of German Jewish Liberalism In the century since their first, limited experience of emancipation in 1812, many German Jews gained an increasing awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of appealing to civic rights and individual freedoms to seek recognition in German public institutions. On the one hand, these liberal ideals of freedom and equality, duty and obligation to the rational legal state (Rechtstaat) gave German Jews a sense of belonging to the German Fatherland and held up the image of the rights-bearing citizen as an ideal to strive toward. But on the other hand, as we saw in the previous chapter, the Jewish Question was also increasingly framed as a problem implicit in the developing discourse of liberalism and gave rise to an anxiety over the secularization of political and moral public discourse about values, norms, and social ideals in Wilhelmine Germany. The Jewish Question, as I argued, was both an epistemological and a political predicament. Whether all “Germans” acknowledged Jews as belonging to a community and fraternity of national identity is less important, however, than the diversity in normative goals represented by the introduction of a liberal philosophical worldview in Imperial Germany as the means for articulating a still inchoate national identity. And because the Jews, like many of their compatriots, participated in a collective imagining of what a “civic” identity could be, their engagement with both the liberalism and idealism of the late nineteenth century gives voice to the significant influence of 197 NAHME - CHAPTER 3 DRAFT- NOT FOR CITATION this intellectual worldview on the broader social and cultural moment. -
“The Sixth Sense”: Towards a History of Muscular Sensation
Gesnerus 68/1 (2011) 218–71 “The Sixth Sense”: Towards a History of Muscular Sensation Roger Smith* Summary This paper outlines the history of knowledge about the muscular sense and provides a bibliographic resource for further research. A range of different topics, questions and approaches have interrelated throughout this history, and the discussion clarifies this rather than presenting detailed research in any one area. Part I relates the origin of belief in a muscular sense to empiricist accounts of the contribution of the senses to knowledge from Locke, via the idéologues and other authors, to the second half of the nine- teenth century. Analysis paid much attention to touch, first in the context of the theory of vision and then in its own right, which led to naming a distinct muscular sense. From 1800 to the present, there was much debate, the main lines of which this paper introduces, about the nature and function of what turned out to be a complex sense. A number of influential psycho-physiolo- gists, notably Alexander Bain and Herbert Spencer, thought this sense the most primitive and primary of all, the origin of knowledge of world, causa- tion and self as an active subject. Part II relates accounts of the muscular sense to the development of nervous physiology and of psychology. In the decades before 1900, the developing separation of philosophy, psychology and physiology as specialised disciplines divided up questions which earlier writers had discussed under the umbrella heading of muscular * The stimulus for writing up this paper, which I had long put off because I hoped to do some- thing more rounded, came from the participants, and especially from the organisers, Vincent Barras and Guillemette Bolens, of a project ‘L’intelligence kinesthésique et le savoir sensori- moteur: entre arts et sciences’, at a conference of World Knowledge Dialogue, ‘Interdisci- plinarity in action: a p ractical experience of interdisciplinary research’, Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland, 10–14 October 2010. -
Some Remarks on John Stuart Mill's Account of Tocqueville's
SOME REMARKS ON JOHN STUART MILL’S ACCOUNT OF TOCQUEVILLE’S CONCERN WITH THE MASSES IN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES ÁTILA AMARAL BRILHANTE E FRANCISCO JOSÉ SALES ROCHA1 (UFC / Brasil) RESUMO Este artigo mostra que John Stuart Mill e Alexis de Tocqueville defenderam a existência de uma cultu- ra cívica capaz de contribuir para o florescimento da liberdade, da diversidade e impedir as massas de adquirirem um poder impossível de ser controlado. O argumento principal é que, no início da década de 1840, John Stuart Mill incorporou ao seu pensamento político a ideia de Alexis de Tocqueville de que, para que a democracia tenha um adequado funcionamento, o poder das massas deve ser contraba- lançado. Inicialmente, John Stuart Mill tentou encontrar um poder na sociedade para contrabalançar o poder das massas, mas depois ele passou a defender um novo formato para as instituições com o obje- tivo de garantir a presença das minorias educadas no parlamento e, por meio disto, estabelecer o con- fronto de ideias que ele julgava tão necessário para prevenir a tirania das massas. No intento de evitar os excessos da democracia, John Stuart Mill deu maior importância à construção das instituições polí- ticas, enquanto Alexis de Tocqueville enfatizou mais o papel da participação na política local. Apesar disto, a dívida do primeiro para com o pensamento político do segundo é imensa. Palavras-chave: O poder das massas. Controlabilidade. Democracia. J. S. Mill. A. de Tocqueville. ABSTRACT This article shows that both J. S. Mill and Tocqueville favoured a civic culture that supported liberty, diversity and prevented the uncontrolled power of the masses. -
The Need for Revival
Scholars Crossing SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations 1982 The Need for Revival Edward Hindson Liberty University, [email protected] Ed Dobson Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/sor_fac_pubs Recommended Citation Hindson, Edward and Dobson, Ed, "The Need for Revival" (1982). SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations. 144. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/sor_fac_pubs/144 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Crossing. It has been accepted for inclusion in SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of Scholars Crossing. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Holy Terror fanatically use any and every means to make converts; those continued from page 9 who make extreme and ridiculous statements in the name of God, etc. True Fundamentalists must reject and denounce Can W~ for what it really is - a bitter diatribe against religion! "We such extremists as not representative of biblical Christianity. _ There cannot live as machines," the authors say, "programmed by We must be careful to say only what the Word of God says Scriptures ... surrendered to Christ and computers" (p. 347). and no more. Also, we must pledge ourselves to be fair and \1 the chur At least one Catholic leader, Monsignor George Higgins, is accurate in the way we treat secular humanists, in spite of ',never be reported (Charleston Daily Mail, Sept. 28, 1982) to have their ridiculous and prejudiced treatment of us. Millions of jlit is too I ithe "La( resigned from the People for the American Way because of people freely attend our churches every week, not out of !cannot II Lear's sponsorship of Holy Terror, with its cultic constraint, but because of their deep personal commit l "simplistic .. -
Samuel Bailey and the Question of His “Influence”: a Skeptical View
SAMUEL BAILEY AND THE QUESTION OF HIS “INFLUENCE”: A SKEPTICAL VIEW Samuel Hollander Discussion Paper No. 08-05 June 2008 Monaster Center for Economic Research Ben-Gurion University of the Negev P.O. Box 653 Beer Sheva, Israel Fax: 972-8-6472941 Tel: 972-8-6472286 1 Samuel Bailey and the question of his “influence”: a skeptical view English, Irish and Subversives Among the Dismal Scientists Eds. N. Allington & N. Thompson (Elsevier Press) Samuel Hollander [email protected] 2 I INTRODUCTION: SELIGMAN’S READING OF BAILEY AND ITS RECEPTION Professor Edwin Seligman hoped by his study of “neglected” British economists “to call attention to some of the British writers who undertook to discuss economic theory during the two decades following the appearance of Ricardo’s Principles . It will perhaps surprise many to find in this literature so much that foreshadows the most recent contributions to economic doctrine” (1903: 336). Samuel Bailey’s Critical Dissertation on Value (1825) – written anonymously in reply to the formulation of Ricardian theory in De Quincey’s Templars’ Dialogue (1824) shows the author, Seligman maintained, to be one of the “more acute critic[s] of Ricardo” (352), a “keen and fertile thinker,” having in mind “[t]he opposition to the labour theory of value, the emphasis put on time as an element in value, the broadening of the rent concept, the criticism of the statement that rent does not enter into price, and the importance assigned to productivity in affecting value – all these constitute doctrines of importance in the recent phases of the science” (355; also 534).