PHILOS 1B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Rights-Based Approach To Development
27 Sep 2016
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Jeremy bentham broke ground in utilitarianism but it was mill who defined it and brought it into a whole aspect developed and refined utilitarianism in morals, politics and economics. A utilitarian approach, rather than rights-based approach i forego any advantage which could be derived to my argument from the idea of abstract right as a thing independent from utility. Big threat to mill =- tyranny on the majority. Rights and constitutional checks were a way to limit state power and protect individual interests. Problem: norms and values prevalent in society often reflect interest and perspectives of those with power. Believed in a liberal society, we must guard against the mass conformity of social groups: the way social groups push outsiders away or denigrate people who are different. There needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion (195: just because an opinion is popular does not mean that it is true.
