J. S. Mill and the Art of Compromise

• Authors: Rafael Cejudo
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The word compromise means a kind of agreement and a concession to something harmful or wrong. I argue that particularly this second sense is quite relevant in the ethics of political action. John Stuart Mill focused upon this issue in his Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform 1859. I outline Mill's doctrine on compromise looking at the external and internal features of an acceptable measure of compromise. These features provide a set of conditions necessary in order for compromise to take place, but they do not guarantee sufficient conditions. In order to assess Mill's political coherence and to draw a general distinction between strategic and ethical compromises the paper concludes by considering two compromise measures that Mill adopted while he was a Member of Parliament.

Keywords

EN

political prudence; consequentialism; progress; compromise; J. S. Mill

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human Affairs
• Year: 2010
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 300-307

Dates

published

2010-12-01

online

2010-12-16

Contributors

author

Rafael Cejudo

• Plaza del Cardenal Salazar, 3, 14003-Córdoba Spain

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10023-010-0032-x