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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 January 2009
This paper argues that James Mill is worthy of greater study than he now receives. It outlines the course of scholarship on James Mill, and considers various hypotheses to explain the decline of interest in his writings. Two examples, in education and penal theory, are presented of cases in which James Mill's views differed significantly from Bentham's, and anticipated those of John Stuart Mill.
English translation by Chiara Rustici.
1 For works on James Mill see the bibliographical note in Mill, J., Political Writings, ed. Ball, T., Cambridge, 1992, pp. xxxi–xxxivGoogle Scholar; ‘Appendix III’ in Fenn, R. A., James Mill's Political Thought, London, 1987, pp. 186–8Google Scholar; see also the bibliographical updates in The Mill News Letter and The Bentham Newsletter, since 1989 united in Utilitas. For a comparative look at the two Mills, see Mazlish, B., James & John Stuart Mill: Father and Son in the Nineteenth Century, 2nd edn., Oxford, 1988Google Scholar.
2 J. Mill, Political Writings; the essays are: ‘Government’, ‘Jurisprudence’, ‘Liberty of the Press’, ‘Education’, ‘Prison and Prison Discipline’ and ‘The Ballot’, with the addition of T. B. Macaulay, ‘Mill on Government’ and Mill's rebuttal, ‘Fragment on Mackintosh’. The five essays had been originally published, together with ‘Colonies’ and ‘Law of Nations’, in the supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica in the 1820s.
3 The essays printed in the supplement to the Enc. Brit., ‘Commerce’, the two volumes Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind and A Fragment on Mackintosh, Elements of Political Economy, and Bain's, A. James Mill: A Biography have all been published as The Collected Works of James Mill, Chippenham, 1992, 7 volsGoogle Scholar.
4 Stephen, L., The English Utilitarians, 3 vols. (i. Jeremy Bentham, ii. James Mill, iii. John Stuart Mill,) New York, 1950Google Scholar.
5 Ibid., ii. 15.
6 Halévy, E., La formation du radicalisme philosophique, 3 vols., Paris, 1901–1904Google Scholar.
7 Ball, T., ‘Introduction’ to Mill, J., Political Writings, p. xiGoogle Scholar.
8 Bain, , Biography, p. viiGoogle Scholar.
9 Fenn, , app. II, ‘Concise List of the Works of J. Mill’, pp. 156–86Google Scholar.
10 J. S. Mill in his autobiography denies that his father was intolerant. He waxes on, though, about his father's rigidity and stubborn attachment to his own extremely precise ideas on correct individual behaviour.
11 Mill, J., ‘Government’, Political Writings, p. 27Google Scholar. In his introduction Ball talks about the problems and hostility related to the anti-feminist attitude within the circle (pp. xi–xii); the accusation was centred on the contradictions of such a limitation as compared to the general principles of political representation as formulated by Mill himself.
12 The critical edition of the Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Toronto, the first volume of which was published in 1962Google Scholar, has been recently completed.
13 Thanks to the creation of the Bentham Committee, The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham began publication in 1970Google Scholar.
14 Quoted by Ball, , ‘Introduction’, p. xxviiiGoogle Scholar.
15 Dickens, C., Hard Times (1854), ed. Schlicke, P., Oxford, 1989, p. 1Google Scholar.
16 Ibid., p. 8.
17 Later labelled as constructionism and made the object of a radical critique by von Hayek, F. A., in Law, Legislation and Liberty, 3 vols., London, 1982Google Scholar.
18 This expression is to be found in Ball, T., ‘Platonism and Penology: James Mill's Attempted Synthesis’, Journal of the History of Behavioural Sciences, xviii (1982), 222–93.0.CO;2-I>CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
19 See the analysis of the concept of suum by Olivecrona, K. in ‘Appropriation in the State of Nature: Locke on the Origin of Property’, Journal of the History of Ideas, xxxv (1974), 211–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 Bentham, J., Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, ed. Burns, J. H. and Hart, H. L. A., London, 1970, p. 284Google Scholar. On the issue of the relationship with the jusnaturalistic tradition, see Olivecrona, K., ‘The Will of the Sovereign: Some Reflections on Bentham's Concept of “a Law”’, American Journal of Jurisprudence, xx (1975), 95–110CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘Bentham's Veil of Mystery’, Current Legal Problems, xxxi (1978), 227–37Google Scholar; see also Fagiani, F., ‘Prudenza, probità e beneficienza. Bentham, l'utilitarismo e la tradizione del diritto naturale’, Rivista di Filosofia, lxxx (1989), 25–63Google Scholar.
21 This type of work has been carried out by Rees, J. in John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, ed. Williams, G. L., Oxford, 1985Google Scholar.
22 Mill, J., ‘Education’, Political Writings, p. 155Google Scholar.
23 Mill, J. S., Autobiography, ed. Robson, J. M. and Stillinger, J., Toronto, 1981Google Scholar, Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, i. 49.
24 Mill, J., ‘Education’, Political Writings, p. 157Google Scholar.
25 J. Mill, ‘Prison and Prison's Discipline’, ibid., 199.
26 Bentham, J., IPML, p. 34Google Scholar.
27 Mill, J. S., Autobiography, CW, i. 49–51Google Scholar. My emphasis.
28 About the influence of Greek philosophy on J. S. Mill's utilitarianism, see Williams, G., ‘The Greek Origin of John Stuart Mill's Happiness’, Utilitas, vii (1996)Google Scholar. Both Williams and I arrive, independently and by different approaches, at similar conclusions.
29 Ball, ‘Platonism and Penology’.
30 See Plato, , Republic, 433 aGoogle Scholar.
31 Plato, , Laws, 862 c–dGoogle Scholar;see the discussion in Saunders, T. J., Plato's Penal Code, Oxford, Clarendon, 1991, esp. pp. 139–95Google Scholar.
32 Ball examines five essays: the 1825 edition of ‘Prison and Prison Discipline’ and of ‘Education’, then ‘The Formation of Human Character’, ‘On The Penal Laws of England’, ‘Howard and the Police of Prisons’. The last three essays had been published in The Philanthropist, edited by William Allen in the first years of the nineteenth century.
33 Ball, , ‘Platonism and Penology’, 225Google Scholar.
34 See Mill, J. S., An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy, ed. Robson, J. M., Toronto, 1979, CW, ix. 437–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar;the issue is dealt with also in A system of Logic Ratiocinative and Inductive, ed. Robson, J. M., 2 vol., Toronto, 1973, CW, vii. 454Google Scholar.
35 Mill, J. S., An Examination of Sir William Hamilton' Philosophy, CW, ix. 454Google Scholar.
36 Ibid., p. 464.
37 Ibid.
38 As labelled by Saunders, Plato's Penal Code.
