Mulling over Mill

On Friday OpinionJournal published a piece on John Stuart Mill in honor of his 200th birthday on May 20, tracing and commenting on the philosopher's ideas of utilitarianism, contained most famously and enduringly in On Liberty. Read the article here.

Utilitarianism as a moral code can appear reasonable, an objective standard; yet in the end it is as solid a foundation as relativism could ever hope for. Mill's moral code calls for protection of individual rights from the "tyranny of the majority." OpinionJournal notes:

This principle has a profound significance: It is saying that the purpose of law is not to uphold the will of the majority, or to impose the will of the sovereign, but to protect the will of the individual. It is the legal expression of the "sovereignty of the individual." The problem lies in the concept of harm. How can I prove that one person's action does not harm another? How can I prove, for example, that other people are not harmed by my public criticism of their religious beliefs--beliefs on which they depend for their peace of mind and emotional stability? How can I prove that consensual sex between two adults leaves the rest of us unaffected, when so much of life's meaning seems to rest on the assumption of shared sexual norms? These questions are as significant for us as they were for Mill; the difference is that radical Islam has now replaced Scottish puritanism as the enemy of liberal values.

Mill's philosophy is at the heart of the political/moral struggle today over sexual ethics and freedoms. Even some conservatives lean libertarian on these issues: Sean Hannity doesn't care what consenting adults do in their bedroom, as long as it stays there. The problem with this view is not just a moral one; it's a practical one. What happens in the bedroom inevitably effects the outside world. Thus, for moral and practical reasons, I support strong heterosexual marriages and healthy families.

The "harm" doctrine of "On Liberty" has been used again and again to subvert those aspects of law which are founded not in policy but in our inherited sense of the sacred and the prohibited. Hence this doctrine has made it impossible for the law to protect the core institutions of society, namely marriage and the family, from the sexual predators.

Tags: John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, morality, truth