I// / r JOHN STUART MILL A STUDY OF NTS PHILOSOPHY CHARLES DOUGLAS, M.A., D.Sc. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON * c C . T I MDC.CJDXX; v & LIBRARY 747290 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO P II E F A C E Tins book professes to be only what its name a suggests study of Mill s Philosophy: its aim is to examine some ideas which underlie his work rather than to give a summary of his opinions, or a detailed account of his contribu tions to the philosophical sciences. In a book addressed chiefly to students of philosophy it seemed best to say little of the life or even of the intellectual of Mill and development ; where does occur biography its introduction is largely an accident. If my criticism or interpretation of Mill should seem to suggest philosophy other than his, 1 hardly feel impelled to apologise for vi Preface are never under this; for systems of thought stood except in their relations to one another. Eeferences to Mill s works are made to the most recent Library Editions, except in the cases of the Logic/ Political Economy, and Liberty/ in which it seemed better to refer to the original 1 People s Editions. In connection with the special subject of Mill s Philosophy, I have laid myself under obligations to the work of those who have preceded me : to the late Professor Green s Lectures on Mill s to Professor Bain s John Stuart Mill ; Logic ; to Mr Courtney s Metaphysics of J. S. Mill/ and to his attractive Life of John Stuart Mill ; to Professor Masson s appreciative and pointed 2 criticism; to Professor Hoffding s Einleitung unserer Zeit and in die Englische Philosophic ; 3 to the late M. Taine s delightful study. Other 1 Messrs Longmans, (Jreen, & Co. - with Criticisms V. Recent British Philosophy : a Review ; Mill s Answer to Sir William including some Comments on Mr Hamilton. :1 Mill. Le Positivisine anglais, etude sur Stuart Preface vii and more detailed obligations are acknowledged, so far as possible, where they occur. The whole of this book has been read in proof by the Piev. A. Halliday Douglas, of Cambridge. Part of it has also been read in manuscript by Professor Andrew Seth, of this University, and all of it by Professor Henry Jones, of Glasgow University, and by Mr J. A. Smith, of Balliol College, Oxford. I am indebted to all these for criticisms and and gentlemen suggestions ; my thanks are especially due to Professor Jones, but for whose help my work must have been still more imperfect than it is. UNIVERSITY OF KDIXUUKGH, February 1895. COX T E N T S CHAPTER I PAGE fXTRODUCTORY 1 CHAPTER II ISOLATION Importance of the theory of knowledge Mill s general conception of thought individualistic Derivation of this from Locke, Berkeley, and Hume Their .signifi cance in the development of English philosophy Their agreement in the use of a psychological method of explanation Which leads to metaphysical individu alism Individualism Mill s starting - point Implied in experientialism, as he conceives it His sensational ist theory of experience Abstract character of the psychological account of knowledge Its effect on Mill s view of man s relation to the world His psycho logical conception of logic Exemplified in his theory of judgment, definition, and syllogism . .1-1 x Contents EXPERIENCE Mill s theory of knowledge not consistently individualistic His sense of the relation of thought to reality Special statement of this in his account of mathe matical axioms And of the law of Causation and the . Uniformity of Nature Ambiguity of this Its truth and value when rightly understood Mill s objective and truth conception of logic, as the science of evidence Inconsistent with his sensationalism Mill s criticism of the psychological conception of logic Logic a science And of reality Judgment the unit of knowledge in Mill s therefore of logic Importance of attributes theory of knowledge Their objectivity Significance, kinds . 39 in this connection, of_the doctrine of natural CHAPTER IV CAUSALITY his Mill s psychological conception of causality Not only idea He regards it as objectively real An "uncon ditional " relation And therefore necessary Inconsis as tency of this with the representation of causality relation the essentially a sequence Unconditional of meaning of causality as implied in Mill s theory of induction Significance of the idea of Uniformity Nature Induction an inquiry into conditions De have pends on an idea of explanation which might affected Mill s theory of definition And of deductive inference Generality implied in all judgment Utility of syllogism Universal element in knowledge Signi in ficance of this for syllogism Idea of system implied reasoning Expressed by syllogism Contents xi CHAPTER V SELF-CONCERN Psychological licd.oni.-sin part of Mill s inheritance its rela tion to his theory of knowledge Mill s statement of it His view of economic method Connection of this with psychological hedonism Mill s heritage of individu alism The partial correction of individualism which science furnishes Human life regarded as a related fact Mill s dissatisfaction with his early philosophy Wordsworth Maurice and Sterling Coleridge Sub sequent attitude towards I entham Xew estimate of imagination Belief in social feeling Criticism of economic method Its hypothetical character Its utility doubtful The idea of a standard of comfort . So Belief in the possibility of disinterested action CHAPTER VI LIFE IN NATURE Mill s relation to positivism The practical character of his interests Connection of his humanistic interests with his naturalism Man as an element in natureRelation of Mill s naturalism to his idea of scientific explanation And to the influence of Hartley and James Mill Mill s belief in psychology Assertion against Comte of its introspective method The problem of psychological " modifica analysis Mill s denial of unconscious mental " tions Significance of this denial The hypothetical " character of " sensation Mill s unconsciousness of this His use of physiological terms of explanation Might have been carried further but for his satisfac tion with sensationalism Admissibility of this mode of explanation Recognition of it by Mill xii Contents CHAPTER VII DETERMINISM Mill s interest in determinism chiefly logical Unity of mental life the psychological meaning of determinism Relation of this to the idea of character Dependence of social science upon a psychological ethology He- lation of psychology to social science The degree of accuracy that is possible in ethology Philosophical sig nificance of Mill s demand for ethology Belief in man s dependence upon nature Illustrated by Mill s interest in the Malthusian doctrine of population Productive ness of labour determined by nature Importance of this view Mill s assertion of the determination by nature s~ of human character And of moral ideas Deterministic N meaning of Mill s emphasis on the association of ideas . 1 :JO CHAPTER VIII FREEDOM Mill s admission of the reality of a subject or self Made possible by his sense of the limits of scientific explana tion Connected with his recognition of the objectivity of knowledge The self implied in memory and ex pectation, which are essential to knowledge The idea of the self inexplicable to Mill Yet really internal to his philosophy Abstract and psychological character of his idea of self -consciousness The self and explana tion Connection of Mill s belief in self-consciousness with his emphasis on the part played in experience by interest And by activity The active character of all experience equivalent to its relation to self-conscious- * ness Mill s belief in the scientific value of hypothesis His assertion of the reality and importance of volun tary choice Its influence in the formation of character \ Moral freedom of Mill s idea of freedom "i^ Inadequacy Contents xiii Connected with his misleading conception of self-con sciousness, which separates it from character The idea of character apt to be abstract and misleading The real agent essentially personal Mill s belief in the economic importance of character and choice And of thought_ The importance of education Intellectual development the chief cause of progress The importance of personal life . CHAPTER IX / ETHICAL HEDONISM Self-consciousness of the assumed in all agent moral j u d<>-- ment of conduct Relation of this to Mill s emphasis on choice Mill s determinism separates conduct from self-consciousness And thus makes the moral end external to action Psychological Hedonism the basis of Mill s ethics .Satisfaction an essential element in the moral end Assertion of this in hedonism Apt to make an inadmissible use of the abstraction required for psychology Moral indifference of motives in implied psychological hedonism Impossibility of realising the hedonistic end by making it a motive_ Mill s difficulties clue to his attempt to combine deter minism with <i. criticism of conduct which implies its relation to self-consciousness Utility a moral principle James Mill a severe moralist Moral earnestness of Mill s ethical His theory hedonism not an expression of sensuous tendencies But clue, rather, to his philan still more to thropyAnd his sense of the logical value of the hedonistic principle The development of scien tific method Benthani s chief service to ethics Practi cal value of this Bentham s work analytic And also constructive s Mill criticism of Bentham Expresses a less abstract idea of the moral end than is implied in consistent hedonism . .179 xiv Contents CHAPTER X THE WORTH OF CONDUCT Hill s assertion