Understanding John Stuart Mill
This multi-episode podcast is hosted by Professor Laurence Houlgate, Ph.D. The podcast is based on Houlgate's best-selling study guide Understanding John Stuart Mill: The Smart Student's Guide to Utiltarianism and On Liberty, two books he taught during a long career as a university professor of philosophy.
This podcast is about Utilitarianism. A later podcast will be about Mill's On Liberty. Students will learn much more about Mill's classic books if they purchase Houlgate's guide-book Understanding John Stuart Mill and/or Mill's original books (Utilitarianism and On Liberty), available at low cost on Amazon.com or at your favorite book store.
Having the book on hand while Professor Houlgate talks and comments will help listeners focus during the episode and mark off those sections they would like to read again after the broadcast.
Each episode will be aired on Mondays at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 17 minutes
- Episodes
- 14
- Years Active
- 2022
Understanding J.S. Mill's Utilitarianism, EP 14, Laudable Injustice
"Laudable injustice" looks like a contradiction, but Mill uses these words to describe what happens when an act or omission that is unjust in most cases is justifiable in a small group of other cases…
00:16:59 |
Tue 20 Dec 2022
Understanding J.S. Mill's Utilitarianism, EP 13 Justice and Utility (cont.)
This episode begins with an imaginary conversation between Mill and John Locke about the idea of natural rights. Mill rejects the idea of rights that exist outside of civil society and Locke has dif…
00:15:37 |
Tue 13 Dec 2022
Understanding J.S. Mill's Utilitarianism, EP 12, Feelings of Justice and the Idea of a Right
In this episode I explain Mill's account of "feelings" of justice and injustice, and how Mill ties this concept to the idea of a violation of a moral or legal rule and the idea of punishment. I will…
00:16:56 |
Tue 06 Dec 2022
Understanding J.S. Mill's Utilitarianism, Justice and Utility, EP 11
In chapter 5 of Understanding John Stuart Mill, the most serious criticism of the utility principle is dissected and explained. The criticism is based on the claim that utilitarians cannot accommoda…
00:20:04 |
Tue 29 Nov 2022
Understanding J.S. Mill's Utilitarianism, Proof of the Principle of Utility (cont.) EP 10
In this episode we discuss Mill's attempt to show that the following propositions are not contradictory: (1) Happiness is the only thing desirable as an end; and (2) Virtue is a good in itself, witho…
00:18:25 |
Tue 22 Nov 2022
Understanding J.S. Mill's Utilitarianism, Proof of the Principle of Utility, EP 9
Mill's theory of life has two elements: (1) Happiness is desirable as an end; and, (2) Happiness is the only thing desirable as an end. In this episode we will discuss Mill's unusual "proof" of elem…
00:10:20 |
Tue 15 Nov 2022
Understanding J.S. Mill's Utilitarianism, The Ultimate Sanction (cont.). EP 8
This episode is a continuation of EP7. It is about Aristotle and Mill's claim that all humans have social feelings for all other humans. It is important to point out that this is an empirical clai…
00:05:48 |
Tue 15 Nov 2022
Understanding J.S. Mill's Utilitarianism, EP 7 The Ultimate Sanction
Once we understand the principle of utility, what are the motives for obeying it? Mill writes that this is a problem for all moral theories. The general question is "Why should I be moral?" The par…
00:21:57 |
Tue 08 Nov 2022
Understanding J.S. Mill's Utilitarianism EP 6 What Utilitarianism Is (cont.)
Mill continues his responses to his critics in the concluding section of chapter 2 of Utilitarianism. The two final criticisms are that the principle of utility is useless in most cases in which mor…
00:18:29 |
Tue 01 Nov 2022
Understanding J.S. Mill's Utilitarianism, What Utilitarianism Is (cont.), EP5
Mill continues his lesson on the definition of utilitarianism by responding to his critics. In this episode, we discuss several responses to the criticisms that (1) utilitarianism is "too high for h…
00:19:14 |
Tue 25 Oct 2022
Understanding J.S. Mills Utilitarianism EP4 What Utilitarianism Is (cont.)
In episode 4, Mill continues answering objections to his critics. In episode 3 he answered the "pig" objection by pointing out that pigs are incapable of experiencing pleasures of the mind. Therefo…
00:20:28 |
Tue 18 Oct 2022
Understanding J.S. Mill's Utilitarianism, What Utilitarianism Is, EP3
This episode of the podcast is about J.S. Mill's brilliant defense of several objections made to the principle of utility. He begins by offering a definition of the principle (also called
"the great…
"the great…
00:18:35 |
Tue 11 Oct 2022
Understanding J.S. Mill's Utilitarianism EP 2 General Remarks
In episode 2 we discuss Chapter 1 of Mill's book Utilitarianism. The chapter is titled "General Remarks," an introduction to the rest of the book. In the chapter, Mill discusses the different way in…
00:22:46 |
Tue 04 Oct 2022
Understanding John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, About Mill EP1
Did you know how to read a book in a foreign language at the age of 3? Did you know how to read anything at the age of 3? John Stuart Mill was reading books in Greek at that age, and by the time he …
00:18:42 |
Tue 27 Sep 2022
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