...utilitarianism. His appeal is not to abstract right, but to the principle of utility insofar as it is "utility in the largest sense, grounded on the permanent interests of man as a progressive being". 10 However he does not make it clear whether liberty — autonomy for our purposes — has an intrinsic...

...liberty and representative government. For Mill, utility as a principle of evaluation must be understood in "the largest sense, grounded on the permanent interests of man as progressive being" (On Liberty, CW XVIII: 224). Likewise, a good government worked to improve the character...

...utilitarianism and rights-based theories. Whereas Mill had foregone "any advantage which could be derived to my argument from the idea of abstract right, as a thing independent of utility,"27 Kant had sought a basis for the moral law on exactly such abstract considerations. And...

...security of others. [1.11] It is proper to state that I forego any advantage that could be derived to my argument from the idea of abstract right, as a thing...largest sense, grounded on the permanent interests of humans as a progressive beings. Those interests, I contend, authorize the subjection of individual...

...utilitarian and liberal at the same time (Lyons 1977; Annas 1977). Mill refines and broadens the content of utility: 'I regard utility as the ultimate appeal...permanent interests of man as a progressive being' (Mill 1995: 81). Accordingly, Mill's conception of happiness includes not merely 'quantitative' but...

...little doubt as to Mill's motivation in ' [forgoing] any advantage which could be derived to [his] argument from the idea of abstract right, as a thing independent of utility.'31 As Bentham sought to show, the 'Law of Nature,' like all such expressions, is simply a...