January 14: John Stuart Mill

As we are watching Christiane Amanpour interview Muslims in London on their attitudes towards democracy, does anything said in the 19th century relate to our present fearful and watchful state in a war against an enemy that is as much an idea as an amorphous collection of guerrillas?

John Stuart Mill, known for a philosophical position known as "Utilitarianism,"  made a number of statements that might have been said last week, or last year, so much do they have the ring of urgency.   What might he have said about the present war in Afghanistan?  Possibly this?

 “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.”

Or something quite different?

 “I am not aware that any community has a right to force another to be civilized.”

Mill's focus, however, was not primarily on war but on the issue of human happiness -- how to know it, how to have it for oneself,  how to organize society to promote it.  As we readers of the Great Books consider his contributions to our civilization, we once again face the question that seems central to Great Books discussions:  What is the Good Life, and how shall we live it?

Join us for this discussion.

To read online or download:  http://www.utilitarianism.com/mill1.htm

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