James Mill's common place books and their intellectual context, 1773-1836
This thesis is an intellectual history of James Mill's political thought, which focuses on four specific topics: his ideas on parliamentary reform; on libel law, or the freedom of the press; education, or man's ability to utilise his reason; and on established religion, primarily in the form of Mill's attitude towards the Church of England. At face-value, the thesis' main aim is to contextualize in detail Mill's published writings on these four subjects (which comprise its four chapters) by virtue of comparing them with unpublished manuscript material present in his common place books, which were transcribed as part of this PhD project. Although the chapters are developed in such a way that they can be seen as independent studies of Mill's thought, there are of course more general themes which run through the thesis as a whole, as well as specific links between particular topics. One notable example is the notion that Mill employed âdissimulation' in his published writings, that is to say that he did not necessarily express in public the full extent of his ideas, because of a fear that their radical extent would attract intrigue or prosecution from the reactionary governmental or religious authorities in
Grint, Kristopher
JC223 Great Britain
James Mill's common place books and their intellectual context, 1773-1836. This thesis is an intellectual history of James Mill's political thought, which focuses on four specific topics: his ideas on parliamentary reform; on libel law, or the freedom of the press; education, or man's ability to utilise his reason; and on established religion, primarily in the form of Mill's attitude towards the Church of England. At face-value, the thesis' main aim is to contextualize in detail Mill's published writings on these four subjects (which comprise its four chapters) by virtue of comparing them with unpublished manuscript material present in his common place books, which were transcribed as part of this PhD project. Although the chapters are developed in such a way that they can be seen as independent studies of Mill's thought, there are of course more general themes which run through the thesis as a whole, as well as specific links between particular topics. One notable example is the notion that Mill employed âdissimulation' in his published writings, that is to say that he did not necessarily express in public the full extent of his ideas, because of a fear that their radical extent would attract intrigue or prosecution from the reactionary governmental or religious authorities in
james mill common place book intellectual_context intellectual_history james mill political_thought focus four_specific topic idea parliamentary_reform law freedom press education man ability utilise reason establish religion primarily form mill attitude_towards church_england face_value main_aim contextualize detail mill publish writing subject comprise_four virtue compare unpublished manuscript material present common place book transcribe part phd project although developed way see independent study mill think course general theme_run whole well specific link particular topic notable example notion mill employ publish writing say necessarily express public full extent idea fear radical extent would attract intrigue prosecution reactionary governmental religious authority