John Stuart Mill, o socialismo e sua utopia liberal: uma aplicação de sua visão de instituições sociais
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/1980-53572934lvmKeywords:
J.S. Mill, philosophy of institutions, socialism, liberal utopia, moral utopiaAbstract
This paper analyses Mill's rejection of socialism and his adherence to what we chose to
call his 'liberal utopia' from the viewpoint of his theory of institutions. Mill's belief was that,
to be adequate, social institutions should promote social progress - understood mainly as
individual improvement - without endangering the social order. Socialist institutions were
seen as limited in their capacity to promote some of the main features that Mill wished to
see cultivated in manking (such as creativity, uniqueness, originality, autonomy, etc.) and
this explains his rejection of this kind of social alternative. Mill's philosophy of institutions
also sheds light into the nature of his 'liberal utopia'. In fact. Mill refuses to postulate the
specific form of institutional arrangement that should prevail in an ideal society. What he
clearly indicates is that at each stage of development of society the institutions should
stimulate, to the limit, the improvement of human beings. In this sense we argue that his
social utopia is anchored in his moral utopia of perfectibility of manking.
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Copyright (c) 1999 Laura Valladão de Mattos
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