Mill refined the ethical theory of utilitarianism which had taken root in the work of Machiavelli, by giving it a more humane gloss that legitimates its use in business and democratic liberal governments. Mill also has some important things to say about freedom of speech which is controversial today, especially for business leaders. Utilitarianism puts expediency ahead of principle; sometimes the minority has to suffer for the good of the majority. It’s impossible for government and business to satisfy all stakeholders all the time in a trickledown economy, or so this theory goes. Mill, partly influenced by his contact with French socialism, concedes the need for a welfare state, a notion anathema to economic rationalists like Hayek and Friedman.

1. 1.

   Mill and Bentham,Utilitarianism and Other Essays, p. 283.

2. 2.

   Ibid, p. 292.

3. 3.

   Ibid, p. 288.

4. 4.

   Ibid, p. 304.

5. 5.

   Mill (1974, p. 115).

6. 6.

   Mill, 1987, p. 306. Emphasis added.

7. 7.

   Williams (1972, p. 98). See also Coates (1996, pp. 94–5).

8. 8.

   See, for example, Coates, “Utilitarianism, Oxford Idealism and Cambridge Economics.”

9. 9.

   White (1996, pp. 110, 12, 14).

10. 10.

    Mill (1974, pp. 72, 119, 120).

11. 11.

    Ibid, pp. 59, 68.

12. 12.

    Ibid, pp. 69, p. 59.

13. 13.

    Ibid, p. 122.

14. 14.

    Mill (1993, p. 207). Emphasis added.

15. 15.

    Ibid, p. 208.

16. 16.

    von Hayek (1978, p. 139).

Authors and Affiliations

1. Highton, VIC, Australia

   Lindsay Dawson

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