John Stuart Mill
>> Readings

Sculpture by Grendel's Mother.

Required Textbooks:

• John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic (2 vols.; make sure to get the Liberty Fund edition).
• John Stuart Mill, On Liberty and Other Essays (ed. John Gray)
  (This volume contains Utilitarianism, On Liberty, Rep. Gov't and Subjection of Women; you're welcome to get any editions you like, as long as you end up with all four of these. They've been in print for a long time, in a lot of editions, and you may save some money by finding them used. If you buy them new, the Gray is probably the most cost-effective package.)
• John Stuart Mill, Autobiography
• Charles Dickens, Hard Times
• James Mill, Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind (course reader, available at the Copy Center, lower level of the Union)
Further readings will be available on-line and on reserve. (Log in, using your uNID and CIS password.)

Weekly Readings:

1. Aug. 25:
   • Introduction. Optional prereading: SEP entry, John Stuart Mill, thru sec. 1 only.

2. Aug. 27:
   • What Was Benthamite Utility? Reading: Mill, Utilitarianism, chs. 1-2 (Collected Works, vol. X).

     Optional: FAQs on the Auto-Icon.

3. Aug. 29:
   • Mill's Version of Utility. Reading: Mill, Utilitarianism, ch. 4 (Collected Works, vol. X).

     Optional reading: Jeremy Bentham, Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, pp. 12-13 (on-line reserve). Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, "Mill's 'Proof': A More than Half-Hearted Defense".

     Further optional reading: Norman Kretzmann, "Desire as Proof of Desirability" (online reserve).

4. Sept. 1: LABOR DAY -- NO CLASS.
5. Sept. 3:
   • Justice and the Decided Preference Criterion. Reading: Mill, Utilitarianism, ch. 5; review U 2:3-8. (Collected Works, vol. X).

     Optional reading: Sandra Osborne, "Mill's Lower and Higher Pleasures" (model paper, available at the Reserve Desk in Marriott).

6. Sept. 5:
   • An Introduction to Associationism. Reading: Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind, ch. 3 ("The Association of Ideas").

     When you're reading the Analysis, check the initials at the ends of the footnotes. "Ed." means the footnote is by John Stuart Mill; you need to read those, but you can skip the other ones.

     Optional reading: Analysis, chs. 1-2.

7. Sept. 8:
   • The Principle of Liberty and Freedom of Speech. Reading: Mill, On Liberty, chs. 1-2.

     Optional reading: Millgram, "On Being Bored Out of Your Mind", secs. 2-3.

8. Sept. 10:
   • Freedom of Deed. Reading: Mill, On Liberty, ch. 3.

     Optional reading: Gertrude Himmelfarb, On Liberty and Liberalism: The Case of John Stuart Mill (on reserve in Marriott).

9. Sept. 12:
   • Mill's Theory of Deductive Logic. Reading: Mill, System of Logic, Book II, chs. 2-3

     Optional reading: Quine, Word and Object, excerpts (on reserve shortly).

10. Sept. 15:
    • Mill on Mathematics. Reading: Mill, System of Logic, Book II, chs. 4-5.

      Optional reading: Philip Kitcher, "Arithmetic for the Millian" (online reserve). Gottlob Frege, Foundations of Arithmetic, pp. 9-17 (online reserve).

11. Sept. 17:
    • The Problem of Induction. Reading: Mill, System of Logic, Book III, chs. 1-3.

      Optional reading: Geoffrey Scarre, Logic and Reality in the Philosophy of John Stuart Mill, ch. 4 ("The Possibility of Inductive Reasoning"; online reserve).

12. Sept. 19:
    • The Law of Universal Causation. Reading: Mill, System of Logic, Book III, chs. 5, 21.

      Optional reading: Braithwaite, "The Predictionist Justification of Induction" (online reserve).

13. Sept. 22:
    • Empiricist Metaphysics. Reading: Mill, Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy, chs. 11-12, Appendix to chs. 11-12 (i.e., pp. 177-208). (Collected Works, vol. IX).

      Optional further reading: C. I. Lewis, Mind and the World Order.

14. Sept. 24:
    • Mill's Four Methods. Reading: Mill, System of Logic, Book III, chs. 8-9.

      Optional reading: TBA.

15. Sept. 26: NO CLASS -- I'll be giving a talk in Boulder.

16. Sept. 29:
    • Chemical Sciences. Reading: Mill, System of Logic, Book III, ch. 6 ("On the Composition of Causes", pp. 370-378); Book VI, ch. 4, sec. 3 ("The Principal Investigations of Psychology Characterized", pp. 852-856); Book VI, ch. 7 ("Of the Chemical, or Experimental Method in the Social Sciences", pp. 879-886).

      Optional reading: Tim Simmons, "The Association of Ideas and the Joy of Ability" (model paper, online reserve).

17. Oct. 1:
    • Mill Writes a Book Review. Reading: Mill, "Auguste Comte and Positivism", Part I. (Collected Works, vol. X). (For the Comte review, make sure to use the version on the Liberty Fund web site, not the excerpts on the Marriott reserve page.)

      Optional reading: Comte, Introduction to Positive Philosophy (on reserve in Marriott).

18. Oct. 3:
    • The Lessons of Positivism. Reading: Mill, "Auguste Comte and Positivism", Part II. (Collected Works, vol. X).

      Optional reading: TBA.

19. Oct. 6:
    • Fred of the Will. Reading: Mill, System of Logic, Book VI, ch. 2 (pp. 836-842).

      Optional reading: Hilary Bok, Freedom and Responsibility, excerpts (online reserve). Luana Mueller, "Mill, Ayer, and the Nature of the Sexes" (model paper, on reserve at Marriott).

20. Oct. 8:
    • Method for Social Science. Reading: Mill, System of Logic, Book VI, chs. 8-10. Review "Auguste Comte and Positivism," pp. 306-309.

      Optional reading: TBA.

21. Oct. 10:
    • Mill vs. Frege: Arithmetic and Idealization. Reading: Mill, System of Logic, Book II, ch. 6 ("The Same Subject Continued"). Gottlob Frege, Foundations of Arithmetic, pp. 9-17 (online reserve).

      Optional reading: Philip Kitcher, "Arithmetic for the Millian" (online reserve). Glenn Kessler, "Frege, Mill and the Foundations of Arithmetic". Gasking, TBA; Edward Craig, "Arithmetic and Fact" (online reserve).

    HAVE A GREAT FALL BREAK! TAKE DICKENS TO THE BEACH!

22. Oct. 20:
    • A Manufactured Mind. Reading: Mill, Autobiography, ch. 1; "Bentham" (Collected Works, vol. X). Charles Dickens, Hard Times.

      Further optional reading: Packe, The Life of John Stuart Mill (the standard biography, for a reality check).

23. Oct. 22:
    • The Heir Apparent. Reading: Mill, Autobiography, ch. 2;

      Optional reading: Considerations on Representative Government (RG), ch. 7.

24. Oct. 24:
    • Mill's Epiphany. Reading: Mill, Autobiography, ch. 3; Analysis, vol. 2, pp. 206-255, 265-266 (thru first full para.); pay special attention to long footnote 45, on pp. 233-236.

      Optional reading: Hamilton (Collected Works vol IX), p. 284n; Principles of Political Economy, (Collected Works vol III), pp. 505f (Book iii, ch. 7, sec 3); Paul Thagard, "Explanatory Coherence" (online reserve).

25. Oct. 27:
    • Life in the Panopticon. Reading: Mill, Autobiography, ch. 4; Considerations on Representative Government, ch. 1.

      Optional reading: Janice Carlisle, John Stuart Mill and the Writing of Character, chs. 1-2.

26. Oct. 29:
    • Mill Cracks Up. Reading: Mill, Autobiography, ch. 5. Pay special attention to 5:3. Analysis, vol 2, pp. 335-382 (i.e., "The Will, II," through the end of Mill's lengthy footnote (but you can ignore Bain's).

      Optional reading: Vogler, John Stuart Mill's Deliberative Landscape, ch. 3 ("Means, Ends and Mill," online reserve).

27. Oct. 31:
    • What Is Poetry? Reading: Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" (Bartleby). (Please come to class prepared to read this out loud; this means practicing reading it aloud at home. Please also be prepared to paraphrase the poem in ordinary English; this means paying attention to the sense as you read.)

      Mill, "Carlyle's French Revolution" (in Collected Works, vol. XX, available at the Liberty Fund website).

      Optional reading: Mill, "Thoughts on Poetry and Its Varieties," "Tennyson's Poems" (in Collected Works, vol. I, available at the Liberty Fund website). Further viewing (a model for your recitation): Wordsworth courtesy of MC Nuts and Cumbria Tourism.

      Further (very optional) reading: Carlyle, The French Revolution.

28. Nov. 3:
    • Moral Freedom. Reading: Review A 5:1 (p.134, "In giving an account..."); System of Logic, Book VI, ch. ii ("Of Liberty and Necessity").

      Optional reading: Harry Frankfurt, "On the Necessity of Ideals" (online reserve).

29. Nov. 5:
    • Liberty and Genius. Reading: OL chs. 3-5.

      Optional reading: "On Genius" (Collected Works, vol. I); Alexander Bain, On the Study of Character, ch. 15 ("Genius"; online reserve).

30. Nov. 7:
    • Coleridge... and the Paradox of Hedonism. Reading: System, Book III, ch. xv ("Of Progressive Effects; and of the Continued Action of Causes"); A 5:6 (para. bridging pp. 117-118, starting "The experiences of this period...").

      Optional reading: "Coleridge"; Laurie Paul, "The Worm at the Root of the Passions" (online reserve).

31. Nov. 10:
    • Mill's TAship and Postdoc.

      Reading: Start early on Subjection of Women!

      Optional reading: Jeremy Bentham, Chrestomathia (excerpts, online reserve). Very optional reading: Bentham, Rationale of Judicial Evidence.

32. Nov. 12:
    • The Father of Feminism. Reading: Subjection of Women.

      Optional reading: RG ch. 10.

33. Nov. 14:
    • Mill Gets Married. Reading: Autobiography, ch. 6. Phyllis Rose, Parallel Lives, chapter on Mill and Taylor (online reserve).

      Optional reading: RG ch. 8.

      Further optional reading: Harriet Taylor Mill, Complete Works (ed. Jacobs).

34. Nov. 17:
    • How to Write a Letter of Recommendation. Reading: Autobiography, ch. 7; Analysis, vol ii, pp. 11-16 (sec. on "Relative Terms").

      Optional reading: Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, secs. 256-265 (online reserve).

35. Nov. 19:
    • Better Living Through Chemistry. Reading: Analysis, vol ii, ch. 15 ("Reflection"); vol. i., ch. 5 ("Consciousness"); vol. i, pp. 90-91, 108-109.

      Optional reading: Vogler, John Stuart Mill's Deliberative Landscape, ch. 4 (on reserve in Marriott).

36. Nov. 21:
    • Mill on Necessity. Reading: System, Book II, ch. 7 ("Examination of Some Opinions Opposed to the Preceding Doctrines").

      Optional reading: Analysis, vol. i, ch. 11 ("Belief"; pay special attention to Mill's long footnote at the end of the chapter, but you can ignore Bain's); vol. ii, ch. 14, sec. 4 ("Privative Terms"), on pp. 99-115.

    NOV . 21, PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM: Elijah Millgram, "Millian Metaethics". 3:00 (NOTE TIME CHANGE). Tanner Library. Attendance encouraged but not required.

37. Nov. 24:
    • Mill's Theory of Natural Kinds. Reading: System, Book I, ch. 7 (esp. sec. 4); Book IV, ch. 7.

      Optional reading: Analysis, vol. i, pp. 247-293 (you can skip Grote's footnote 79, but pay attention to Mill's note 80).

38. Nov. 26:
    • The Millian Theory of Names. Reading: System, Book I, ch. 2; Analysis, vol. i, ch. 4 ("Naming").

      Optional background reading: Kripke, Naming and Necessity, Lecture I, esp. 26-29, 57-59 (online reserve). Russell, "On Denoting".

    NO CLASS FRIDAY, NOV. 28 -- HAPPY THANKSGIVING... SPEND THE HOLIDAY THINKING ABOUT YOUR FINAL PAPER!

39. Dec. 1:
    • How to Appropriate a Dead Philosopher. Reading: Review U 2:5, U ch. 5, OL ch. 3.

      Optional: Rawls, Theory of Justice (1971 ed.), pp. 62, 92-95, 253, 260. Further background reading: Joshua Cohen, "Democratic Equality".

40. Dec. 3:
    • Who Wants Genius? OL 3:12.

41. Dec. 5:
    • The Harm Principle and the Collapsing Agent. Optional reading: Gunn, The Joy Makers, Part III, chs. 5-6; optional viewing: Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange.
42. Dec. 8:
    • Who Was Mill's Opposition? Reading: "Whewell on Moral Philosophy" (Collected Works, vol. X).

      Optional reading: Snyder, Reforming Philosophy, ch. 1 ("Whewell and the Reform of Inductive Philosophy", online reserve). Further followon reading: Plato, "Euthyphro"; Mark Johnston, "Are Manifest Qualities Response-Dependent?" Monist 81(1), Jan 1988: 3-44.

    Quote of the day, apropos the Paradox of Hedonism: "Found it! That pesky, elusive good time I was looking for? Turns out it was at the bottom of a very large margarita! Who knew?" (Amy Romanowski)

43. Dec. 10:
    • Life in the Projects. Optional reading: Susan Wolf, "Meaningful Lives in a Meaningless World".
44. Dec. 12:
    • Hypotheses. No new reading.

    PAPERS DUE DEC. 12 -- FINAL PAPERS MUST BE ON TIME!
    If you put a mailing address on the paper, I'll send it there; if you're not going to pick it up, write "No comments, please" on the front. Thanks.