James Mill and Scottish Moral Philosophy

Abstract

Among James Mill's intellectual starting-points were the idea of a conjectural history of moral institutions which he had adopted from Adam Smith and, more especially, John Millar, and the moral philosophy of Dugald Stewart. The reconciliation of these two strands of Scottish 18th-century moral thought is very problematic, but this presented no real difficulty for Mill since conjectural history lost its vital parts at his hands. This emasculation of the Smith–Millar tradition was as necessary for the Benthamite utilitarianism to which Mill was converted as it had been for the Common Sense moral philosophy of Stewart, and from this angle the former can be elucidated by comparison with the latter.