The Formation of Character: Mill's "Ethology" Reconsidered

Polity

Volumn 33, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 25-48

  Ball, Terence ^a  

^a ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0034550924     PISSN: 00323497     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3235459     Document Type: Article

References (116)

1. See William Bennett, The Book of Virtues (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993); Shelby Steele, The Content of our Character (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990); James Q. Wilson, On Character, 2nd expanded edn. (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1995).
2. See William Bennett, The Book of Virtues (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993); Shelby Steele, The Content of our Character (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990); James Q. Wilson, On Character, 2nd expanded edn. (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1995).
3. See William Bennett, The Book of Virtues (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993); Shelby Steele, The Content of our Character (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990); James Q. Wilson, On Character, 2nd expanded edn. (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1995).
4. Alexander Bain, John Stuart Mill, A Criticism: with personal recollections (London: Longmans Green & Co., 1882), 78.
5. Dennis Thompson, John Stuart Mill and Representative Government (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976), 152, n. 48.
6. Alan Ryan, John Stuart Mill (London: Routledge, 1974), 88.
7. Stefan Collini, "introduction" to John Stuart Mill, On Liberty and Other Writings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), xix.
8. John Gray, Mill on Liberty: A Defence (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983), 83.
9. John M. Robson, The Improvement of Mankind: The Social and Political Thought of John Stuart Mill (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968), 141.
10. Nicholas Capaldi, "Mill's Forgotten Science of Ethology," Social Theory and Practice 2 (1973): 409-20.
11. L. W. Sumner, remarks made at the 1992 Utilitarianism Conference, University of Western Ontario, March 1992.
12. Mill, Autobiography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), 150.
13. John M. Robson, "Introduction" to J. S. Mill A System of Logic, in Mill, Collected Works [CW] (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974), vol. VII, xlix. Compare Bain (Mill, 91): By 1848, with the Logic and Political Economy behind him, Mill's "greatest works [were] now completed." So much, then, for On Liberty (1859), Representative Government (1861), and The Subjection of Women (1869)!
14. John M. Robson, "Introduction" to J. S. Mill A System of Logic, in Mill, Collected Works [CW] (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974), vol. VII, xlix. Compare Bain (Mill, 91): By 1848, with the Logic and Political Economy behind him, Mill's "greatest works [were] now completed." So much, then, for On Liberty (1859), Representative Government (1861), and The Subjection of Women (1869)!
15. John M. Robson, "Introduction" to J. S. Mill A System of Logic, in Mill, Collected Works [CW] (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974), vol. VII, xlix. Compare Bain (Mill, 91): By 1848, with the Logic and Political Economy behind him, Mill's "greatest works [were] now completed." So much, then, for On Liberty (1859), Representative Government (1861), and The Subjection of Women (1869)!
16. John M. Robson, "Introduction" to J. S. Mill A System of Logic, in Mill, Collected Works [CW] (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974), vol. VII, xlix. Compare Bain (Mill, 91): By 1848, with the Logic and Political Economy behind him, Mill's "greatest works [were] now completed." So much, then, for On Liberty (1859), Representative Government (1861), and The Subjection of Women (1869)!
17. John M. Robson, "Introduction" to J. S. Mill A System of Logic, in Mill, Collected Works [CW] (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974), vol. VII, xlix. Compare Bain (Mill, 91): By 1848, with the Logic and Political Economy behind him, Mill's "greatest works [were] now completed." So much, then, for On Liberty (1859), Representative Government (1861), and The Subjection of Women (1869)!
18. John M. Robson, "Introduction" to J. S. Mill A System of Logic, in Mill, Collected Works [CW] (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974), vol. VII, xlix. Compare Bain (Mill, 91): By 1848, with the Logic and Political Economy behind him, Mill's "greatest works [were] now completed." So much, then, for On Liberty (1859), Representative Government (1861), and The Subjection of Women (1869)!
19. Quoted in John Morley, The Life of William Ewart Gladstone (London: Macmillan, 1903), 3 vols., II, 544.
20. Mill, Autobiography, 134.
21. Logic, in CW, vol. VII, p. 14. Mill, like Habermas in our day, really did believe in "the forceless force of the better argument." See Jürgen Habermas, "Wahrheitstheorein," in Wirklichkeit und Reflexion (Pfullingen: Neske, 1973), 239.
22. Logic, in CW, vol. VII, p. 14. Mill, like Habermas in our day, really did believe in "the forceless force of the better argument." See Jürgen Habermas, "Wahrheitstheorein," in Wirklichkeit und Reflexion (Pfullingen: Neske, 1973), 239.
23. CW, VIII, Bk. VI, ch. 1, 833-35.
24. Bain, Mill, 79. On the centrality of "character" in Mill's works, see Janice Carlisle, John Stuart Mill and the Writing of Character (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991).
25. Bain, Mill, 79. On the centrality of "character" in Mill's works, see Janice Carlisle, John Stuart Mill and the Writing of Character (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991).
26. See, e.g., Samuel Smiles, Character (London, 1871) and, more generally, Stefan Collini, Public Moralists: Political Thought and Intellectual Life in Britain, 1850-1930 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ch. 3.
27. See, e.g., Samuel Smiles, Character (London, 1871) and, more generally, Stefan Collini, Public Moralists: Political Thought and Intellectual Life in Britain, 1850-1930 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ch. 3.
28. "I have ever felt myself, beyond any modern that I know of except my father, . . . a pupil of Plato, and cast in the mould of his dialectics." The Early Draft of John Stuart Mill's Autobiography, ed. Jack Stillinger (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961), 48. Mill's emphasis on paideia is especially evident in the very late "Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St. Andrews" (1867), CW, XXI, 217-57.
29. "I have ever felt myself, beyond any modern that I know of except my father, . . . a pupil of Plato, and cast in the mould of his dialectics." The Early Draft of John Stuart Mill's Autobiography, ed. Jack Stillinger (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961), 48. Mill's emphasis on paideia is especially evident in the very late "Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St. Andrews" (1867), CW, XXI, 217-57.
30. Logic, CW VIII, 837-38.
31. Robert Owen, A New View of Society: or, Essays on the Principle of the Formation of the Human Character (London, 1813), 2nd Essay, 2-3. (References are to the first edition, in which each essay is individually paginated.)
32. New View, 2nd Essay, 36.
33. New View, 3rd Essay, 5.
34. New View, 4th Essay, 71.
35. New View, 3rd Essay, 23.
36. Logic, CW, VIII, 840.
37. Logic, 840-41.
38. The phrase was coined by one of the model's leading critics, William H. Dray, Laws and Explanation in History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957).
39. James Mill, Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind (1828), 2nd edn., ed. J.S. Mill and Alexander Bain (London: Longmans Green, 1878), 2 vols. I, ch. 2-3.
40. Logic, CW, VIII, 869. Elsewhere Mill describes a "science secondaire que j'ai nommée Ethologie, c.à.d. de la théorie de l'influence des diverses circonstances extérieures, soit individuelles, soit sociales, sur la formation du caractère morale et intellectuel. Cette théorie, base nécessaire de l'education rationelle, me paraît aujourd'hui la moins avancée de toutes les spéculations scientifiques un peu importantes." J. S. Mill to Auguste Comte, 30 October 1843, in CW, XIII, 604.
41. Logic, CW, VIII, 869. Elsewhere Mill describes a "science secondaire que j'ai nommée Ethologie, c.à.d. de la théorie de l'influence des diverses circonstances extérieures, soit individuelles, soit sociales, sur la formation du caractère morale et intellectuel. Cette théorie, base nécessaire de l'education rationelle, me paraît aujourd'hui la moins avancée de toutes les spéculations scientifiques un peu importantes." J. S. Mill to Auguste Comte, 30 October 1843, in CW, XIII, 604.
42. Logic, CW, VIII, 872, 874.
43. Autobiography, 3.
44. Autobiography, 132.
45. James Mill, "The Formation of Human Character," Philanthropist, III: 10 (1813); and "Education" in James Mill: Political Writings, ed. Terence Ball (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 137-94.
46. James Mill, "The Formation of Human Character," Philanthropist, III: 10 (1813); and "Education" in James Mill: Political Writings, ed. Terence Ball (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 137-94.
47. James Mill, "Prisons and Prison Discipline," in Political Writings, 195-224. See further my Reappraising Political Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), ch. 7.
48. James Mill, "Prisons and Prison Discipline," in Political Writings, 195-224. See further my Reappraising Political Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), ch. 7.
49. Caroline Fox, Memories of Old Friends, 2nd ed. (London: Smith, Elder, 1882), 2 vols., I, 163-4.
50. Life and Letters of John Arthur Roebuck, ed. Robert Eadon Leader (London: Edward Arnold, 1897), 36, 28.
51. James Mill disliked and disapproved of Roebuck's high-spiritedness and sense of humor - it was he who dubbed the three young friends the "Trijackia, all of us being named John" - as well as his love of poetry and talent as a sketch artist and painter. To these sources of dislike was added another: "His [JSM's] father took occasion to remark to myself especially, that he had no great liking for his son's new friends. I, on the other hand, let him know that I had no fear of him who was looked upon as a sort of Jupiter Tonans. James Mill looked down on us (i.e., Graham and himself) because we were poor, and not greatly allied [i.e., socially well-connected], for while in words he was a severe democrat, in fact and in conduct he bowed down to wealth and position. To the young men of wealth and position who came to see him he was gracious and instructive, while to us he was rude and curt, gave us no advice, but seemed pleased to hurt and offend us. This led to remonstrance and complaint on the part of John Mill, but the result was that we soon ceased to see John Mill at his home." The Trijackia met instead at the Grotes', where they were welcomed by the eminent historian of Greece and his kindly wife. Roebuck, Life and Letters., 28-29.
52. Autobiography, 20.
53. Early Draft, 66.
54. Early Draft, 183-85.
55. Autobiography, 82.
56. Autobiography, 80.
57. Autobiography, 42.
58. Autobiography, 81.
59. Autobiography, 84-85.
60. Autobiography, 93.
61. Autobiography, 101.
62. Logic, CW VIII, 841.
63. Autobiography, 85.
64. Logic, CW, VIII, 840-41.
65. Autobiography, 85.
66. Autobiography, 85-86.
67. Autobiography, 83.
68. Autobiography, 11.
69. Autobiography, 89-90, 92, 94.
70. Mill, The Subjection of Women (1869) in Mill, On Liberty and Other Writings, ed. Collini, 132.
71. Subjection, 133.
72. Subjection, 139.
73. Subjection, 139.
74. Subjection, 140.
75. Subjection, 141.
76. Subjection, 170.
77. Subjection, 160.
78. Subjection, 158.
79. Subjection, 197; cf. also 158.
80. Subjection, 159.
81. Subjection, 168-9.
82. Subjection, 199-203.
83. Mill, Considerations on Representative Government, in Utilitarianism, Liberty, and Representative Government, ed. A.D. Lindsay (New York: Dutton, 1951), 283.
84. Representative Government, 325.
85. Representative Government, 274.
86. Representative Government, 274-75. Compare Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (New York: Viking, 1985).
87. Representative Government, 274-75. Compare Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (New York: Viking, 1985).
88. Subjection of Women, 160.
89. Representative Government, 324.
90. Logic, CW, VIII, 890.
91. Representative Government, 283, 288.
92. Mill, "De Tocqueville on Democracy in America," London Review, II (October 1835), 100; CW, XVIII, 63.
93. Mill, "De Tocqueville on Democracy in America," London Review, II (October 1835), 100; CW, XVIII, 63.
94. Representative Government, 291.
95. The locus classicus of this view is Aristotle, Politics, Bk. III, ch. 11; and among its most prominent modern articulations is Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), ch. 5.
96. The locus classicus of this view is Aristotle, Politics, Bk. III, ch. 11; and among its most prominent modern articulations is Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), ch. 5.
97. Representative Government, 291.
98. Autobiography, 150.
99. Mill, On Liberty, 59.
100. On Liberty, 57.
101. On Liberty, 14. For a brilliant explication of Mill's views on "harm to interests," see John C. Rees, "A Re-reading of Mill on Liberty," Political Studies 8 (1960): 113-29.
102. Including Mill's friend Caroline Fox: "I am reading that terrible book of John Mill's on liberty, so clear, and calm, and cold: he lays it on one as a tremendous duty to get oneself well contradicted, and admit always a devil's advocate into the presence of your dearest, most sacred Truths, as they are apt to grow windy and worthless without such tests, if indeed they can stand the shock of argument at all. He looks you through like a basilisk, relentless as Fate. . . . Mill makes me shiver, his blade is so keen and so unhesitating." Memories of Old Friends, vol. II, 269-70.
103. See the exchange between Rawls and Habermas in Journal of Philosophy 92 (1995): 109-80.
104. Just as Mill did when, as MP for Westminster, he introduced a bill for the enfranchisement of women: see Autobiography, 179-80. See, further, my Reappraising Political Theory, ch. 8.
105. Just as Mill did when, as MP for Westminster, he introduced a bill for the enfranchisement of women: see Autobiography, 179-80. See, further, my Reappraising Political Theory, ch. 8.
106. See supra, n. 1.
107. Perhaps I should say that Wilson would agree with Mill, as he appears not to have read Mill on character or on liberty, as we shall see.
108. Wilson, On Character, 50.
109. On Character, 42.
110. On Character, 38.
111. On Character, 38.
112. On Character, 38-9.
113. See, e.g., Eamon Callan, Creating Citizens: Political Education and Liberal Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997); and Richard Dagger, Civic Virtues (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), ch. 8.
114. See, e.g., Eamon Callan, Creating Citizens: Political Education and Liberal Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997); and Richard Dagger, Civic Virtues (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), ch. 8.
115. The best account of their relationship remains F. A. Hayek, John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor: Their Friendship and Subsequent Marriage (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951).
116. On this and other aspects of Mill's parliamentary career, see Bruce L. Kinzer, Ann P. Robson, and John M. Robson, A Moralist In and Out of Parliament: John Stuart Mill at Westminster, 1865-1868 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992).