•  166
    What is Mill's Principle of Utility?
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 3 (1): 1-12. 1973.
    In mill the principle of utility does not ascribe rightness or wrongness to anything. It governs not just morality but the whole art of life. It says that happiness is the only thing desirable as an end. But the meaning of this formulation is problematic, Since mill's theory of practical reason conceives this desirability as an end as generating reasons for action for all agents in a way implying impartiality between self and others, Whereas in the ordinary sense it does not. This interpretation…Read more
  •  164
    Mill on liberty and morality
    Philosophical Review 81 (2): 133-158. 1972.
  •  128
    Mill's act-utilitarianism
    Philosophical Quarterly 24 (94): 67-68. 1974.
  •  123
    Mill on the harm in not voting
    Utilitas 22 (2): 126-133. 2010.
    Christopher Miles Coope offers a letter, drafted by Helen Taylor but certified by Mill, in which Mill asserts the duty to vote, as evidence that he could not have regarded harmfulness to others as a necessary condition of moral wrongness. But it is clear that Mill regarded the duty to vote as one of imperfect obligation, and the wrongness of not fulfilling it as a matter roughly of not doing enough, in this case not doing one's fair share. He has room for the common-sense harmlessness of staying…Read more
  •  116
    Misconceptions of Inference
    Analysis 15 (6): 135-144. 1954.
  •  75
    The nature of inference
    Philosophical Review 64 (3): 351-369. 1955.
  •  67
    Mill’s moral theory: Ongoing revisionism
    Politics, Philosophy and Economics 9 (1): 5-45. 2010.
    Revisionist interpretation of Mill needs to be extended to deal with a residue of puzzles about his moral theory and its connection with his theory of liberty. The upshot shows his reinterpretation of his Benthamite tradition as a form of ‘philosophical utilitarianism’; his definition of the art of morality as collective self-defence; his ignoring of maximization in favour of ad hoc dealing in utilities; the central role of his account of the justice of punishment; the marginal role of the inter…Read more
  •  46
    The value of time
    Ethics 80 (3): 173-184. 1970.
  •  45
    Evaluative Inference
    Philosophy 30 (114). 1955.
    The phrase ‘evaluative inference’ was used by Toulmin for ‘that form of inference by which we pass from factual reasons to an ethical conclusion’; and the phrase has been attacked by Hare in his review of Toulmin and in his book . I shall try to dig out some of the questions at issue in that discussion, but to do so without the help of this technical term, or of any other that I can avoid
  •  38
    What the tortoise taught us
    Mind 63 (250): 170-179. 1954.
  •  33
    Action
    Allen & Unwin. 1968.
    An essay in descriptive metaphysics, this book offers a sketch of the concept of action embodied in pretheoretical, folk ways of speaking. It focuses on the points of view of the agent and spectator in the kind of action in which the question of what to do can arise for the agent. It explores the relations among such action, inanimate action, and the inanimate action of parts of the body on external objects, finding in them analogous roles for the notion of attributability of effects. It contra…Read more
  •  32
    Millian Liberalism and Colonial Oppression
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary Volume 25 (Supplement): 79-97. 1999.
    (1999). Millian Liberalism and Colonial Oppression. Canadian Journal of Philosophy: Vol. 29, Supplementary Volume 25: Civilization and Oppression, pp. 79-97
  •  29
    Millian Liberalism and Colonial Oppression
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 29 (sup1): 79-97. 1999.
    In nineteenth-century Europe …. [w]ith rare exceptions liberals approved of colonialism and provided it with a legitimizing ideology …. Liberalism became missionary, ethnocentric, and narrow, dismissing non-liberal ways of life and thought as primitive and in need of the liberal civilizing mission.This is the judgement passed by Professor Bhikhu Parekh in his 1994 essay “Decolonizing Liberalism.” His deference to John Stuart Mill is shown in his making Mill not one of the exceptions, but rather …Read more
  •  28
    Mill on the Harm in Not Voting: D. G. Brown
    Utilitas 22 (2): 126-133. 2010.
    Christopher Miles Coope offers a letter, drafted by Helen Taylor but certified by Mill, in which Mill asserts the duty to vote, as evidence that he could not have regarded harmfulness to others as a necessary condition of moral wrongness. But it is clear that Mill regarded the duty to vote as one of imperfect obligation, and the wrongness of not fulfilling it as a matter roughly of not doing enough, in this case not doing one's fair share. He has room for the common-sense harmlessness of staying…Read more
  •  24
    John Rawls: John Mill
    Dialogue 12 (3): 477-479. 1973.
  •  22
    Mill's Justice and Political Liberalism
    In Leonard Kahn (ed.), Mill on Justice, Palgrave-macmillan. pp. 135. 2012.
    In her valuable book Hiding from humanity: Disgust, shame and the law, Nussbaum says that she reaches many of the same practical conclusions as Mill. But she argues that Mill’s conceptions of liberty, justice, and respect for rival ideas of the good and for religious belief, are defective, and further that they do not provide as adequate a basis for the form of political liberalism she recommends. Actually, the alleged defects in Mill rest largely on misrepresentations, but more importantly, onc…Read more
  •  17
    Mill's Criterion of Wrong Conduct
    Dialogue 21 (1): 27-44. 1982.
  •  7
    Misconceptions of Inference
    Analysis 15 (6): 135-144. 1955.
  •  6
    X.—new books (review)
    Mind 66 (263): 427-432. 1957.
  •  3
    Drugs and the Problem of Law Abuse
    University of British Columbia Law Review 7 (1): 1-16. 1972.
  •  3
    Mill's Utilitarianism: Critical Essays (edited book)
    with Elizabeth S. Anderson, F. R. Berger, David O. Brink, Amy Gutmann, Peter Railton, J. O. Urmson, and Henry R. West
    Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1997.
    John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism continues to serve as a rich source of moral and theoretical insight. This collection of articles by top scholars offers fresh interpretations of Mill's ideas about happiness, moral obligation, justice, and rights. Applying contemporary philosophical insights, the articles challenge the conventional readings of Mill, and, in the process, contribute to a deeper understanding of utilitarian theory as well as the complexity of moral life
  •  3
    Ix.—new books (review)
    Mind 64 (256): 561-562. 1955.
  •  1
    Action
    University of Toronto Press. 1968.
    Professor Brown in this volume discusses one of the most difficult questions in metaphysics, “what is action?” His analysis proceeds along three main lines of thought: the point of view of the agent, the primacy of inanimate action, and the pervasiveness of explanatory insight in the description of action.
  • Action
    Philosophy 44 (169): 245-246. 1968.
  • Quality and Relevance
    Hastings Center Report 5 (3): 7-8. 1975.