•  10
    Mill on History
    In Christopher Macleod & Dale E. Miller (eds.), A Companion to Mill, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. 2016.
    In this chapter, I offer a reading of Mill's theory of history. Mill maintains some views about history which we typically associate with the eighteenth century – most obviously, a concern for charting the natural stages of development through which societies must pass in the process of civilization. But he also moves towards doctrines associated with the historicists of the nineteenth century. He believes in the historical variability of human nature, the need to understand historical periods i…Read more
  •  3
    This chapter offers an account of the aspect of nineteenth‐century naturalism, by focusing on the work of J. S. Mill and Auguste Comte. Both philosophers have high ambitions for naturalism, aiming to offer a sweeping account of all of human knowledge in naturalistic terms. Mill argued that the metaphysical thinking must already have started to exert an influence in order for monotheistic approaches to take hold, and that Comte's account of the theological stage overstated the extent to which fet…Read more
  •  9
    The consequences of Gregory Conti’s parliament the mirror of the nation
    History of European Ideas 49 (1): 159-161. 2023.
    In this review of Gregory Conti's Parliament the Mirror of the Nation, I offer an outline of what I take to the thesis of that work: that during the mid-Victorian period, mirroring was a key goal of representation, which dominated and framed discussions of post-1832 debates on parliamentary reform. I focus, in particular, on the teleological orientation of the arguments that Conti uncovers in his systematic reconstruction of debates that Conti offers.
  •  23
    Truth, Discussion, and Free Speech in On Liberty II
    Utilitas 33 (2): 150-161. 2021.
    In this article, I offer a reading of On Liberty II which focuses on the structural features of the argument that Mill presents. Mill's argument, I suggest, is grounded on an appeal to the value of truth, and is divided into three sub-arguments, treating true, false and partially true opinion respectively. In section 1, I consider what constraints the teleological orientation of Mill's argument places on the case he makes, before examining in section 2 what the division of Mill's argument into t…Read more
  •  35
    Mill on the primacy of practical reason
    Analysis 78 (4): 630-638. 2018.
    In this article, I explore the relation between theoretical and practical reason in the work of J.S. Mill. I argue that Mill holds that theoretical reason is subordinate to practical reason. Ultimately, this amounts to the claim that the norms of theoretical reason – those rules governing how we ought to believe – are grounded in considerations of utility.
  •  15
    A Companion to Mill (edited book)
    with Dale E. Miller
    John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. 2016.
    This Companion offers a state-of-the-art survey of the work of John Stuart Mill – one which covers the historical influences on Mill, his theoretical, moral and social philosophy, as well as his relation to contemporary movements. Its contributors include both senior scholars with established expertise in Mill’s thought and new emerging interpreters. Each essay acts as a ‘go-to’ resource for those seeking to understand an aspect of Mill’s thought or to familiarise themselves with the contours of…Read more
  •  148
    Mill, Intuitions and Normativity
    Utilitas 25 (1): 46-65. 2013.
    It is the purpose of this article to offer an account of Mill's metaethics. Expanding upon clues given recently by Dale Miller, and previously by John Skorupski, I suggest that when it comes to the foundations of his philosophy, Mill might share more with the intuitionists than we are accustomed to think. Common wisdom holds that Mill had no time for the normativity of intuitions. I wish to dispute, or at least temper, this dogma, by claiming that Mill's attitude towards intuitions is far more c…Read more
  •  16
    Mill's Utilitarianism (review)
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 17 (4): 888-889. 2009.
    This Article does not have an abstract
  •  32
    This thesis is an examination of the philosophy of John Stuart Mill and its relation to the romantic movement. The Introduction outlines reasons to believe that such an inquiry is sensible: Mill’s readings of the British and German romantics are outlined. I proceed to offer an argument for the application of an historical term such as ‘romanticism’ in philosophy and suggest that the space opened up by the revisionist view of romanticism as an extension, rather than a denial, of the Enlightenment…Read more
  •  50
    Was Mill a non-cognitivist?
    Southern Journal of Philosophy 51 (2): 206-223. 2013.
    In this paper, I examine the presumption that Mill endorses a form of metaethical non-cognitivism. I argue that the evidence traditionally cited for this interpretation is not convincing, and suggest that we should instead remain open to a cognitivist reading. I begin, in Section I, by laying out the ‘received view’ of Mill on the status of practical norms, as given by Alan Ryan in the 1970s. There is, I claim in Sections II and III, no firm textual evidence for this reading of Mill: his remarks…Read more
  •  52
    Mill's Antirealism
    Philosophical Quarterly 66 (263): 261-279. 2016.
    One of Mill's primary targets, throughout his work, is intuitionism. In this paper, I distinguish two strands of intuitionism, against which Mill offers separate arguments. The first strand, a priorism, makes an epistemic claim about how we come to know norms. The second strand, ‘first principle pluralism’, makes a structural claim about how many fundamental norms there are. In this paper, I suggest that one natural reading of Mill's argument against first principle pluralism is incompatible wit…Read more