Author: Haroon Khalil

In Britain, Hobhouse carried the tradition of positive liberalism forward. Like J. S. Mill and T. H. Green before him, freedom for Hobhouse means personal development, self-realization and ability of the individual to gain fulfilment. In this mission of individual moral and s elf-development, the state needs to perform certain functions. Hobhouse too envisaged a…

Green’s idea of moral freedom, ideal rights and rights as recognition of moral consciousness of the community, all imply and conceive an institution that presents conditions for their realization. In line with the idealist position, Green treats the state as the fullest embodiment of the divine spirit and revelations of divine idea, as Hegel did.…

Green did not accept the doctrine of natural rights advocated by the social contractualists. For Green, rights of man are a matter of inherent moral character of man and must arise from the very fact of man as a human being. They do not emanate from some natural condition and state of nature. Green’s idea…

In his Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation, Green argued that a human being is not determined by will of their strongest motive (like pain or pleasure, or self-interest); rather they determine their will. For Green, ‘the determination of will by reason … constitutes moral freedom or autonomy’.41 Rational capacity of human beings makes them obey what…

T. H. Green, an Oxford Hegelian idealist, was an ardent supporter of positive liberty and moral freedom. Unlike Mill, Green made a complete departure from the utilitarian ground. He argued for moral development of the individual without subscribing to the pain and pleasure view of human nature. Unlike the social contractualists, he rejected the doctrine…

If Mill’s differentiation of actions is viewed in the context of classical liberalism and laissez-faire individualism, his admission of other regarding actions is a departure from what Smith, Ricardo, Spencer, or Malthus would argue. This departure provides room for the State to interfere when necessary in the interest of the society. In order to envisage the role…

Mill insisted on liberty of thought and expression and liberty of conduct. He was an ardent supporter of freedom of speech and opinion. He felt that if truth is to prevail ultimately, all ideas must be left alone to compete, as free discussions can nourish fruitful ideas. His opinion that ‘all mankind minus one lacks…

Mill was not comfortable with the utilitarian principle that his father and Bentham had advocated. His revision of the utilitarian principle is based on the introduction of qualitative factor in the element of happiness. For Jeremy Bentham and James Mill, utility was ensuring greatest or maximum happiness for greatest number, a quantitative matter. Bentham’s seven-point felicific calculus discussed above…

John Gray in his introduction to Mill’s On Liberty and Other Essays, says, ‘on the received and conventional view, John Stuart Mill is an eclectic and transitional thinker, who is never able either to endorse or to abandon the classical utilitarian philosophy he inherited from his father, James Mill …’32 But as we will see below, Mill’s dilemma…

Nineteenth century, however, ruefully confessed the inherent shortcomings of free economy and the limited state. The conflict of interest between the landed or the aristocratic class and the rising capitalist class was already won in favour of the latter. Now, the growing problem of inequality and economic hardship in terms of working conditions, poor sanitation,…