Sunday, October 26, 2008
Mill and Social Situations
What struck me about this chapter was how much emphasis Mill puts on Social things in general. Social duties, social obligations, social utility, etc. My point is he puts a lot thought into the idea of humanity as a social collection of beings, so to speak. Now this really drives Mill's entire philosophy. This is evident from his conception of justice. For Mill, I believe, one of the main arguments against Utilitarianism is the idea of justice and injustice. How can, if society is driven by the idea of the greater good, injustice laws arise? Mill's view, again, on Justice is that it is a set of moral requirements that promote social utility, thus making it of the most important degree. This explains, for Mill, how the idea or conception of Justice changes from time to time and society to society - because man, being a social creature, must adapt his responses to moral situations depending on the level of utility involved. He uses the example of Hammurabi's code to illustrate this, and how, even if said code isn't used any more, most people feel a twinge of yearning for that kind of justice still. This is, for Mill, a natural, rather than a social, response.
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