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Saunders, Ben
2016.
Recent Critics of Mill's Qualitative Hedonism.
Philosophy,
Vol. 91,
Issue. 4,
p.
503.
Article contents
‘A medicine for my state of mind’: The Role of Wordsworth in John Stuart Mill's Moral and Psychological Development
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2015
Abstract
According to Jeremy Bentham's account of happiness, pleasure is understood as homogeneous, without qualitative differences between pleasures, and the relation between pleasure and its objects is understood as morally and psychologically arbitrary. John Stuart Mill's ‘mental crisis’ emerged as he realized the psychological impossibility of living according to this view. His recovery was aided by engagement with the poetry of Wordsworth, through which he developed the notion that the cultivation of character and sentiments is an essential element of a good life. I aim to explore Mill's engagement with Wordsworth, and shed light on how Mill felt able to reconcile hedonic utilitarianism with his new view of the ‘inner life’ of the individual.
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References
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47 A lot of people have commented on drafts of this article, which has allowed me to make considerable improvements to its content. I am very grateful to Angela Breitenbach, David Cooper, Tom Greaves, Andy Hamilton, Simon James, Sean McConnell, Rupert Read, Geoffrey Scarre, Simon Summers and Philip Wilson for their help, as well as to an anonymous reviewer for this journal who identified the weaknesses in an earlier version. I have learned a great deal from conversations about Wordsworth with John McKinnell and David Standen. My greatest debt is to Piers H. G. Stephens, for his detailed and lengthy comments, which were both generous and constructively critical.
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