Liberalism
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Individuality John Stuart Mill’s ideas have been described as the ‘heart of liberalism’. This is because he provided a ‘bridge’ between classical and modern liberalism: his ideas look both back to the early nineteenth century and forward to the twentieth century and beyond. Mill’s interests ranged from political economy to the campaign for female suffrage, but it was the ideas developed in On Liberty ([1859] 1972) that show Mill most clearly as a contributor to modern liberal thought. This work contains some of the boldest liberal statements in favour of individual freedom. Mill suggested that, ‘Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign’, a conception of liberty that is essentially negative as it portrays freedom in terms of the absence of restrictions on an individual’s ‘self-regarding’ actions. Mill believed this to be a necessary condition for liberty, but not in itself a sufficient one. He thought that liberty was a positive and constructive force. It gave individuals the ability to take control of their own lives, to gain autonomy or achieve self-realization. Mill was influenced strongly by European romanticism and found the notion of human beings as utility maximizers both shallow and unconvincing. He believed passionately in individuality . The value of liberty is that it enables individuals to develop, to gain talents, skills and knowledge and to refine their sensibilities. Mill disagreed with Bentham’s utilitarianism insofar as Bentham believed that actions could only be distinguished by the quantity of pleasure or pain they generated. For Mill, there were ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ pleasures. Mill was concerned to promote those pleasures that develop an individual’s intellectual, moral or aesthetic sensibilities. He was clearly not concerned with simple pleasure-seeking, but with personal self-development, declaring that he would rather be ‘Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied’. As such, he laid the foundations for a developmental model of individualism that placed emphasis on human flourishing rather than the crude satisfaction of interests. Positive freedom The clearest break with early liberal thought came in the late nineteenth century with the work of the UK philosopher and social theorist T. H. Green (1836–82), whose writing influenced a generation of so-called ‘new liberals’ such as L. T. Hobhouse (1864–1929) and J. A. Hobson (1854–1940). Green believed that the unrestrained pursuit of profit, as advocated by classical liberalism, had given rise to new forms of poverty and injustice. The economic liberty of the few had blighted the life chances of the many. Following J. S. Mill, he rejected the early liberal conception of human beings as essentially self- seeking utility maximizers, and suggested a more optimistic view of human nature.
Individuals, according to Green, have sympathy for one another; their egoism is therefore constrained by some degree of altruism . The individual possesses social responsibilities and not merely individual responsibilities, and is therefore linked to other individuals by ties of caring and empathy. Such a conception of human nature was clearly influenced by socialist ideas that emphasized the sociable and cooperative nature of humankind. As a result, Green’s ideas have been described as ‘socialist liberalism’. Green also challenged the classical liberal notion of freedom. Negative freedom merely removes external constraints on the individual, giving the individual freedom of choice. In the case of the businesses that wish
Individuality: Self-fulfilment achieved through the realization of an individual’s distinctive or unique identity or qualities; what distinguishes one person from all others. Altruism: Concern for the interests and welfare of others, based either on enlightened self-interest or a belief in a common humanity.
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