Mill’s
Views on Women’s Rights and Religion
Post 1 link: http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2015/11/trent-dillihay-11-final-project-post-1.html
Post 2 link: http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2015/12/trent-dillihay-final-project-post-2.html
Of all of Mill’s
political beliefs, perhaps none were as progressive or controversial as his
stance on women’s rights. During Mill’s lifetime, women had very few rights and
advocating expanding them was highly unpopular in some political and social
circles. Nonetheless, Mill had some strong views on the subject, which he made
clear in a book called The Subjection of
Women, which he published in 1869. In the book, Mill expressed his view
that the relationship between men and women in his day, particularly in how men
had far more political power and legal rights, as being “… the legal
subordination of one sex to the other…”. In Mill’s view, this system was
inherently wrong, as it severely limited the opportunities women had and
violated the principle of utility by depriving them of their chance at further
human development. Mill also thought that this, in turn, would lead to a
negative effect on their families. Mill also attacked the idea that women were
inherently inferior to men in certain respects and would never be able to achieve
genuine equality; Mill believed that the social environment of his day, and the
male-dominated status quo, was the primary and perhaps only cause of any perceived
inferiorities. Mill believed that
outdated, long-standing customs and prejudices people followed were
significantly holding back human progress, especially in the area of women’s
rights, and that these ideas needed to be discarded to allow society to progress.
Ironically, Mill himself was not immune to this effect, as he never seriously
considered the idea of a woman (particularly a married one) having a job or
career outside her home. Mill did, however, support equal opportunities for
education for women; part of this revolves around his view that some women of
his time were likely not aware of the need for women’s rights due to societal
conditioning and near-total lack of access to education that would allow them
to improve themselves and drive them to do so. Mill was also a serious
supporter of women’s suffrage. Unlike some previous philosophers, including
Mill’s own father, who thought that the man of the house was adequate to
represent the interests of his wife and family, Mill recognized that women
could have differing views and interests from their husbands, and felt that
they needed the right to advocate these for themselves in a democratic society.
Mill
also had some unique views on religion which were so controversial that he
purposely delayed publishing them in his Three
Essays on Religion until after his death, for fear the controversy would
turn people away from him and weaken his other work. Mill did not believe in a
God in the sense that the Christianity of his day did, and was certainly an
agnostic at most. Mill thought the idea of an all-powerful and purely good deity was impossible, citing the amount of clear
evil and suffering in the world as a form of proof. To Mill, any form of pure
good in the universe could not be omnipotent, or vice versa, or this evil would
not exist. He also thought the idea of a god and even of religion was so
powerful and enduring because it filled a need for a transcendent good that
people wanted. Mill argued that this role did not necessarily need to be filled
by any deity or supernatural thing, but could be done by humanity focusing on
developing itself and actively combating evil and suffering. Mill also thought that
religion may have served some form of utilitarian role in the past by providing
a moral code that may have assisted human development. However, he also thought
that this effect was likely no longer necessary or beneficial, and could in
fact be detrimental to humanity. Mill argued that there is no evidence to
support or deny the possibility of an afterlife, although he seems not to have
believed in one himself. Finally, however, he does acknowledge one power and
benefit that belief in an afterlife, and religion in general, has: the ability
to inspire hope. Mill firmly believed that hope was a powerful good in powering
the development of humanity, and for all his seeming disdain of traditional
religion, he did acknowledge that it could be a potential force for good.
Sources:
A
Little History of Philosophy by Nigel Warburton
http://www.picturequotes.com/god-is-a-word-to-express-not-our-ideas-but-the-want-of-them-quote-66345
Mill was ahead of his time in so many ways, none moreso than in the matter of gender equality. His partner (and co-author) Harriet Taylor was a huge influence on his thinking, and deserves more public credit than even he gave her.
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