 John Stuart Mill's utilitarianism and the social ethics of sustainable developmentMartin O'Connor The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 1997, vol. 4, issue 3, 478-506 Abstract: This paper considers the writings of John Stuart Mill in political philosophy and political economy as a prototype for ideals of a 'sustainable development' grounded in a norm of justice and social solidarity. Mill's conception of a just 'stationary state* of society is examined alongside his attempts to reconcile precepts of non-interference (individual freedom) and private property, with the constraints and obligations of social, economic, and ecological coexistence. It is shown that notwithstanding vaccillations, Mill ends up espousing an ethical norm of reciprocity and solidarity that is quite different from the premise of self-interest axiomatized in most economic models of competitive market economies. These intuitions about a duty of care complementary to the non-interference principle, when systematized, are shown to find a new contemporary application to questions of economic justice and environmental sustainability. Keywords: sustainability; reciprocity; utilitarianism; J. S. Mill; individual freedom; economic justice; stationary state (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:4:y:1997:i:3:p:478-506 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/10427719700000063 Access Statistics for this article The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought is currently edited by José Luís Cardoso More articles in The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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