Political Science · Western Political Thought
UGC NET 2023 Political Science
Who among the following scholars had levelled the criticism against J.S. Mill that 'we cannot separate two different compartments of individual conduct'?
ABarker
BC. E. M. Joad
CL. T. Hobhouse
DR. M. MacIver ✓ Correct
Correct answer: (D) R. M. MacIver — The criticism that conduct cannot be split into separate self-regarding and other-regarding compartments was made by R. M. MacIver.
Explanation
★The criticism that conduct cannot be split into separate self-regarding and other-regarding compartments was made by R. M. MacIver.
★MacIver attacked Mill's sharp line in On Liberty between self-regarding and other-regarding action.
★He argued that almost no action is purely self-regarding, since our conduct affects others in countless indirect ways.
★A drinker, a gambler, or an idler, for instance, also harms family and society, not only himself.
★So the protected sphere of purely private action, on which Mill's liberty rests, is far narrower than Mill assumed.
★This is one of the classic sociological objections to Mill's harm principle.
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