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2018 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

7. The Science of the Formation of Character

verfasst von : Yuichiro Kawana

Erschienen in: Logic and Society

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US

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Abstract

The subject matter of this chapter is J.S. Mill’s aspiration to form a science of the formation of character, a science that he named ‘ethology’. On the one hand, Mill’s ethology project can be seen, in the intellectual context of early- and mid-nineteenth-century Britain, as an attempt to offer an alternative to phrenology and Owenite environmentalism, both of which were popular in Britain at that time. From a viewpoint of his system of social science, on the other, the ethology project occupied a central theoretical place, and had crucial practical implications.

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Vorheriges Kapitel Historical Knowledge and the Theory of Social Change

Nächstes Kapitel The Science and Art of Political Economy

One of the most insightful works is Rosen (2013).

Gall never called his theory ‘phrenology’. The earliest known use of the term ‘phrenology’ in English was by the American physician Benjamin Rush in 1805, though he used it as equivalent to psychology. The more specific usage became popular in Britain, when T.I.M. Forster called the doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim ‘phrenology’ in 1815, and Spurzheim adopted the term. See Noel and Carlson (1970), Wyhe (2004, 17).

Gall (1835, iv, 278).

Ibid., i, 218.

Ibid., vi, 279.

Ibid., i, 216.

Ibid., i, 212.

Gall and Spurzheim (1810–1819). The second, revised edition was published in the 1820s as Gall (1822–1825). It is this edition that Mill read in the early 1840s.

Quoted in Temkin (1947, 309).

Wyhe (2004, 33–42).

See Cooter (1984, esp. 101–133).

Brown (1803), Gordon (1815), Jeffrey (1826: Phrenology); Jeffrey (1826: Note). Besides these criticisms, one of the most important attacks on phrenology was undertaken in the late 1820s and early 1830s by William Hamilton. For the so-called Edinburgh Phrenology Debate, see Cantor (1975a), Shapin (1975), Cantor (1975b), and Shapin (1979).

Owen (1972, 19).

Ibid 133.

Owen (1826–1827, 59).

Donnachie (2000, 116–117).

James Mill (1813: Character, 96).

Ibid.

Ibid., 108.

In his Autobiography, John Mill commented on James Mill’s educational theory and practice: ‘In psychology, [James Mill’s] fundamental doctrine was the formation of all human character by circumstances, through the universal Principle of Association, and the consequent unlimited possibility of improving the moral and intellectual condition of mankind by education. Of all his doctrines none was more important than this, or needs more to be insisted on’ (JSM, Autobiography, CW, i, 109–111).

Ibid., 110, 111. The phrase, ‘a dry, hard logical machine’, in the early draft was replaced with ‘a mere reasoning machine’ in the final draft.

JSM, Autobiography, rejected leaves, ibid., 612.

JSM, ‘Bentham’, CW, x, 95.

Mill stated that ‘[Bentham’s system of ethics] recognises no such wish as that of self-culture, we may even say no such power, as existing in human nature; and if it did recognise, could furnish little assistance to that great duty of man, because it overlooks the existence of about half of the whole number of mental feelings which human beings are capable of, including all those of which the direct objects are states of their own mind’. (ibid., 98.) Mill stated that Coleridge provided what was lacking in Bentham’s thought, namely a theory of national education or the formation of national character. (JSM, ‘Coleridge’, CW, x, 141)

Robson (1998, 353).

JSM, ‘Remarks on Bentham’s Philosophy’, CW, x, 8. Along with ‘Remarks on Bentham’s Philosophy’, Mill published, in Edward Lytton Bulwer’s England and the English (1833), ‘A Few Observations on Mr. Mill’, where he criticized James Mill for overlooking the diversity of human character. (JSM, ‘A Few Observations on Mr. Mill’, CW, i, 589–594)

JSM, ‘Remarks on Bentham’s Philosophy’, CW, x, 9.

JSM, ‘Bentham’, ibid., 91–92.

Ibid., 98.

Ibid.

Ibid., 105.

Ibid., 99.

JSM, ‘America’, CW, xviii, 94.

JSM, ‘Bentham’, CW, x, 110–111.

JSM, ‘Sedgwick’s Discourse’, ibid., 55–56.

Ibid., 69. See also JSM, ‘Bentham’, ibid., 98.

See pp. 93–95 above.

JSM, Logic, CW, viii, 864.

Ibid., 869–870.

Ibid., 896.

Ibid., 916.

See Mill (1829: Analysis, Chap. 19, 22, 24).

Ibid., ii, 211.

Mackintosh (1832, 195).

Mill (1835: Fragment, 158–159). For a similar view expressed by Bentham, see Bentham (1996, 100): ‘A motive is substantially nothing more than pleasure or pain, operating in a certain manner. Now, pleasure is in itself a good: nay, even setting aside immunity form pain, the only good: pain is in itself an evil; and, indeed, without exception, the only evil; or else the words good and evil have no meaning. And this is alike true of every sort of pain, and of every sort of pleasure. It follows, therefore, immediately and incontestibly, that there is no such thing as any sort of motive that is in itself a bad one.’

James Mill (1835: Fragment, 161).

JSM, ‘Remarks on Bentham’s Philosophy’, CW, x, 13.

JSM, Logic, CW, viii, 842–843.

Contrary to Mill’s impression, Bentham allowed motives to have some significance as far as they affected the consequences of an action. Mill’s ignorance of Bentham’s argument might have been caused by his too ready acceptance of criticism against Bentham, particularly by Carlyle, who, in his essay ‘Signs of the Times’ published in 1829, accused Bentham of a view that ‘our happiness depended entirely on external circumstances’ (Carlyle 1829, 447). For Carlyle’s criticism of utilitarian theory, see Welch (2006).

Comte (1975b, 180 ff).

JSM, ‘Definition’, CW, iv, 319.

JSM, Logic, CW, viii, 849–850.

Ibid., 850–851. Mill’s reference was to Course on Positive Philosophy, 43rd lesson, Comte (1975a, 795–820).

JSM, Logic, CW, vii, 456.

Ibid., 457.

In this regard, it is worth noting that, according to John Robson, Chapter IV of Book VI of the Logic, which included the general statement that psychology, not physiology, should be the science of human nature, was added at the final stage of writing, namely in January 1843, when the other chapters, including a chapter on ethology, had already been completed. Significantly, it was around the same time that Comte told Mill that physiology should be the science of human nature. See John Robson, ‘Textual Introduction’, CW, vii, lxviii-lxv, lxxv, and table 4.

JSM to Auguste Comte, 18 December 1841, CW, xiii, 492 [Haac 1995, 42].

JSM to Auguste Comte, 9 June 1842, ibid., 525 [Haac 1995, 75]. On 6 May 1842, Mill had informed Comte that he had begun reading Gall’s book. (JSM to Auguste Comte, 6 May 1842, ibid., 519. [Haac 1995, 69])

JSM to Auguste Comte, 9 June 1842, ibid., 526 [Haac 1995, 76].

JSM to Auguste Comte, 30 October 1843, ibid., 604–605 [Haac 1995, 197–198].

In Mill’s opinion, Comte’s claim that divorce should be banned in order to promote social stability was an example of a fallacy of a simple enumerative generalization, for this proposition was derived from observations that the banning of divorce had contributed to social stability in certain societies.

In the same letter, Mill clearly gave priority to psychology over phrenology, insisting that anatomical explanation should be applied only to ‘residues (to use my logical terminology)’. (ibid., 605 [Haac 1995, 198–199].)

Brown (1984, 190).

Mill often expressed concern about Comte’s disregard for liberty. See, for example, JSM to Harriet Mill, 15 January [1855], CW, xiv, 294, where he wrote: ‘opinion tends to encroach more & more on liberty, & almost all the projects of social reformers in these days are really liberticide—Comte, particularly so’.

JSM, Logic, CW, viii, 913–914.

Ibid., 944–945.

Ibid., 951.

Ibid., 952.

Stefan Collini, ‘Introduction’, CW, xxi, xlviii.

JSM, Logic, CW, viii, 840.

Ibid., 841.

Ibid.

In the seventh and eighth editions of Logic, in 1868 and 1872 respectively, Mill added the following sentence: ‘And hence it is said with truth, that none but a person of confirmed virtue is completely free.’ (ibid.)

Ibid., 840–841.

G.W. Smith states: ‘There is something of an irony here, however, in that the deficiencies of his answer to Owen at the purely metaphysical level point him in a potentially very fruitful direction in his social philosophy.’ (Smith 1991, 249)

JSM, Logic, CW, viii, 869–870.

See pp. 92–93 above.

Ibid., 870.

Ibid., 869.

Ibid., 869. See also JSM, Address (1867), CW, xxi, 217.

In Considerations on Representative Government, Mill referred to representative democracy and local administration as ‘free institutions’.

See Mill’s statement: ‘The aim of practical politics is to surround the society which is under our superintendence with the greatest possible number of circumstances of which the tendencies are beneficial, and to remove or counteract, as far as practicable, those of which the tendencies are injurious. A knowledge of the tendencies only, though without the power of accurately predicting their conjunct result, gives us to a certain extent this power.’ (JSM, Logic, CW, viii, 898)

As late as the 1850s Mill expressed his aspiration to write on ethology. See, for example, JSM to Harriet Mill, 7 February [1854], CW, xiv, 152; JSM to Alexander Bain, 14 November 1859, CW, xv, 645.

See pp. 96–97 above.

JSM, Logic, CW, vii, 591.

Ibid., viii, 861–862.

Ibid., vii, 592.

Ibid., 602.

Ibid.

Ibid., 593.

Ibid., 603. See also James Mill’s statement in his Fragment on Mackintosh: ‘I suppose nobody, at least nobody now alive, will dispute, that, taking men generally, the bulk of their actions is determined by consideration of these objects. As little, I suppose, will it be disputed, that in deliberating on the best means for the government of men in society, it is the business of philosophers and legislators … to look to the more general laws of their nature, rather than the exceptions.’ (Mill 1835: Fragment, 278–279) For this statement, see also Collini et al. (1983, 113–114). Bentham expressed a very similar view to this. (E.g., Bentham 1983a, 119; Bentham 1983b, 65, 68; Bentham 1990, 183, Bentham 1996, 155, 284)

JSM to Auguste Comte, 3 April 1844, CW, xiii, 626 [Haac 1995, 228].

JSM, PPE, CW, ii, 3.

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Titel: The Science of the Formation of Character
verfasst von: Yuichiro Kawana
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US
Buch: Logic and Society
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-52219-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-52221-4

Copyright-Jahr: 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52221-4_7

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