Free Institutions, Virtuous Citizenship, and Nationality in John Stuart Mill’s Political Theory: The Connections and the Strains
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Abstract
The aftermath of 9/11, when a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda, an Islamic terrorist group, upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. areas on September 11, 2001 brought J. S Mill’s political philosophy to the fore of political discourse. Indeed, Mill’s political thought has helped to understand and redefine liberty and sovereignty in our contemporary world. His philosophy promoted the notion that any action taken to maximize the greatest happiness of majority of the people was right. How can individual liberty or freedom reconcile with the demands of common good? This paper will begin by stating that the aim here is not to provide all the answers but to draw attention to the core of Mill’s political theory. Mill’s philosophies have shown what liberal utilitarianism is and how it supports a system of rights that can guarantee individual liberty. We discuss the connection between Free Institutions, Virtuous Citizenship, and Nationality in Mill’s political thought and draw attention to the contradictions and tensions between them. The implications of the tension go deeper than Mill’s theory because as we are all aware, the 9/11 incident poses a conflict between individual liberty and greatest happiness of the greatest number of people. As we shall presently demonstrate, this paper promises a rich contribution to knowledge and has an advantage of both historical hindsight and a vast body of accumulated research and discourses.
Keywords
John Stuart Mill, political theory, Virtuous Citizenship, Free Institutions, free society, Nationality, Liberty, Representative Government.
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