John Stuart Mill
Utilitarianism / liberalism · England, 1806–1873
The lens
The Millian lens reads an event by two connected measures: whether an action or policy tends to promote happiness over suffering across all affected, and whether it respects the liberty without which happiness cannot be freely pursued. Its vocabulary is the greatest happiness principle, the distinction between higher and lower pleasures, the harm principle, and the tyranny of the majority. This lens asks, with Utilitarianism, whose well-being is being counted and whose is discounted, insisting that each person counts for one. From On Liberty it defends the liberty of thought and discussion on the ground that silencing an opinion robs the whole society—if the opinion is right, of truth; if wrong, of the clearer perception truth gains by collision with error. It watches for social as well as legal coercion, the pressure of custom and opinion that enforces conformity more thoroughly than law. From The Subjection of Women it treats inherited hierarchy as a claim to be tested rather than a fact. Where other lenses fix rights or duties in advance, the Millian lens asks after aggregate welfare while guarding the individuality that mere aggregation can crush. It notices the majority's readiness to mistake its preferences for morality, and the cost of consensus purchased by suppression.
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