The Liberty And Utilitarianism Principle Of Mill's Thought

Liberalism and utilitarianism is the most important content of John Stuart Mill's thought.The relationship of freedom and utilitarian has been debated in academic circles in a long time.Mill thinks utilitarianism is the basis of the principle of freedom.Personalized freedom is the necessary factor of promoting the society.People can improve the mental strength in self-development,and tend to pursue a deeper level of happiness.Therefore,freedom and utility are unified.However,freedom and utilitarian inner tension is objective existence.Freedom means incompatible values are equal to coexist.Utilitarian principle calls for a universal ethical standards for those various values,and insist value has priority.When conflict comes from the different values,freedom and utilitarian might make the opposite answer.Whether can be reconciled,the inner contradictions of freedom and utilitarian should be taken seriously.Not only to understand the meaning of the complexity of the Mill's thought more comprehensively,but also to think about the confusion encountered today by observing the profound influence of mill brought by the era.The first part will point out the three forms of antagonism of freedom and the utilitarian.First of all,freedom principle think that one is the best judge of himself;Utilitarianism insist the correctly judge of the ultimate ethical standards is the pursuit of happiness.Second,the diversity of freedom and hierarchy of utilitarian contradict with each other.The former agrees the pluralistic value are equal to each other,the latter argues that there is a rank among the different values.Finally,the view of Mill's democracy has two sides.According to the principle of freedom,a limited government act as a "night watchman" is better.The public participate in political life actively to cultivate public spirit.Utilitarianism thinks that an active government which takes the education responsibilities is better.It absorbs the staff to achieve the meritocracy,and can be responsible for cultivating the virtue of citizens.The second part will list three representative views of the harmonic of freedom andutilitarian,and make a critical analysis.The theory of self development said that personality development are related with advanced happiness.Self development means the utilitarian maximization.But self development's theory has not proved the inevitable association of free development and public happiness.Social emotional's theory think that under the effect of social emotions,personal interest and social happiness become consistent.But how to prevent the danger of social emotion to violation of free will,social emotion theory does not give a good explanation.The minimum moral theory said that utilitarian pursue to reduce the damage,rather than the pursuit of utility maximization.But it also failed to resolve the conflict between personal interest and public happiness.Therefore,the conflict between freedom and the utilitarian can not be reconciled.The third part will analysis the cause of opposite of freedom and utilitarian,and put forward a appropriate attitude to the relationship.The prosperity of economic from the industrial revolution,the huge gap between rich and poor,the people's sovereignty crisis of the French revolution,the movement of the British parliament's reform,the morality in Victorian times all of those can be seen in Mill's thoughts.After the spiritual crisis,Mill takes the inner feelings and spirit into the freedom and the utility of virtue.The contradiction between freedom and utility is the product of the era.Freedom and utility should maintain a dynamic balance.It is a preferable attitude to face the contrary of freedom and utilitarian and treat the two equal.