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[20] (However, Mill immediately added that "A violation of the great principles of morality it may easily be.") [21] Mill viewed places such as India as having once been progressive in their outlook, but had now become stagnant in their development; he opined that this meant these regions had to be ruled via a form of "benevolent despotism ...
On Liberty is an essay published in 1859 by the English philosopher John Stuart Mill.It applied Mill's ethical system of utilitarianism to society and state. [1] [2] Mill suggested standards for the relationship between authority and liberty.
The only moral laws for the relation between a civilized and a barbarous government, are the universal rules of morality between man and man. Similar arguments can today be found in theory on intervention in failed states. Of more widespread relevance, Mill discussed the position between "civilized peoples".
However, with intention the situation is more complex. In a footnote printed in the second edition of Utilitarianism, Mill says: "the morality of the action depends entirely upon the intention—that is, upon what the agent wills to do." [137] Elsewhere, he says, "Intention, and motive, are two very different things. But it is the intention ...
In particular, Mill tried to develop a more refined form of utilitarianism that would harmonize better with ordinary morality and highlight the importance in the ethical life of intellectual pleasures, self-development, high ideals of character, and conventional moral rules.
In this essay, Mill argues against the idea that the morality of an action can be judged by whether it is natural or unnatural. [3] He then lays out the two main conceptions of "nature", the first being "the entire system of things" and the second being "things as they would be, apart from human intervention."
The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion.
Mill says that humans must first reason about what is moral, then try to bring the feelings of our conscience in line with our reason. [16] At the same time, Mill says that a good moral system (in his case, utilitarianism) ultimately appeals to aspects of human nature—which, must themselves be nurtured during upbringing. Mill explains: