John Stuart Mill on liberty and control / Joseph Hamburger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hamburger, Joseph, 1922-1997.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mill, John Stuart, 1806-1873. On liberty.

Mill, John Stuart.

Liberty.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (260 p.)

Edition:

Core Textbook

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

John Stuart Mill is one of the hallowed figures of the liberal tradition, revered for his defense of liberal principles and expansive personal liberty. By examining Mill's arguments in On Liberty in light of his other writings, however, Joseph Hamburger reveals a Mill very different from the "saint of rationalism" so central to liberal thought. He shows that Mill, far from being an advocate of a maximum degree of liberty, was an advocate of liberty and control--indeed a degree of control ultimately incompatible with liberal ideals. Hamburger offers this powerful challenge to conventional scholarship by presenting Mill's views on liberty in the context of his ideas about, in particular, religion and historical development. The book draws on the whole range of Mill's philosophical writings and on his correspondence with, among others, Harriet Taylor Mill, Auguste Comte, and Alexander Bain to show that Mill's underlying goal was to replace the traditional religious basis of society with a form of secular religion that would rest on moral authority, individual restraint, and social control. Hamburger argues that Mill was not self-contradictory in thus championing both control and liberty. Rather, liberty and control worked together in Mill's thought as part of a balanced, coherent program of social and moral reform that was neither liberal nor authoritarian. Based on a lifetime's study of nineteenth-century political thought, this clearly written and forcefully argued book is a major reinterpretation of Mill's ideas and intellectual legacy.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

EDITOR'S NOTE

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Chapter One. LIBERTY AND CONTROL

Chapter Two. CULTURAL REFORM

Chapter Three. MILL AND CHRISTIANITY

Chapter Four. CANDOR OR CONCEALMENT

Chapter Five. ARGUMENTS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY IN ON LIBERTY

Chapter Six. THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY

Chapter Seven. INDIVIDUALITY AND MORAL REFORM

Chapter Eight. HOW MUCH LIBERTY?

Chapter Nine. MILL'S RHETORIC

Epilogue

INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612753824

9781282753822

1282753827

9781400823246

1400823242

9781400811953

1400811953

OCLC:

700688609