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(N (etymological roots of the good, harm principle, Freedom to N is less…

- - - - If the harm principle is to be raised to a fundamental ideal, what's left is death or herd mentality
      - Indeed, to N, democratic, liberal, utilitarian values to N are little more than values of a herd
- - - - the only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs p15
      - self development
        
        Happiness is the greatest good, but only when we pursue it for the right reasons. Which, is based on the exercise of our intellectual faculties, and in the right way, keeping in line w/ our moral faculties.
        
        Here, M argues we need both reason and morality to guide our judgements about which passions to cultivate
      - guided by the principle of utility in the largest sense, grounded on the permanent interests of man as a progressive being p14
        
        however, this is not to say Ms thought is rooted in strict utilitarianism. His conception and promotion of individualism can be seen as a reconciliation of tensions between romanticism and enlightenment rationalism, revising classical utilitarianism by asserting that we're happiest in the fullest sense when we develop our highest capacities as human beings (L11
      - Thus sets out to create a distinctive form of utilitarianism that reconciles the tensions of enlightenment rationality and romantic thought while simultaneously providing a secular substitute to the function religion used to serve. Mill thought religion can no longer serve this purpose in the modern era, as we've become too pluralistic. no longer a set of single beliefs that can join society in this aspiration to something higher. people disagree too deeply about metaphysical subjects
      - the test of morality is whether our actions tend to produce happiness both in ourselves which will happen when we develop our higher capacities, and in society as a whole.
        
        the challenge for politics is how to order society and political institutions so as to generate progress toward greater human happiness in the aggregate
      - although he is utilitarian, he is an indirect utilitarian. He rejects the previous Benthamite conceptions of utility as too sterile and calculating, omitting the emotional dimension of life. he doesn't think that the greatest happiness in the aggregate will result from programs of social engineering, rather by principles that have a general tendency to encourage self-development and self expression