John Stuart Mill, o socialismo e sua utopia liberal: uma aplicação de sua visão de instituições sociais

• Autor(a) principal: Mattos, Laura Valladão de
• Data de Publicação: 1999
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Estudos Econômicos (São Paulo)
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/ee/article/view/161472
• topic: J. S. Mill; filosofia das instituições; socialismo; utopia liberal; utopia moral; J.S. Mill; philosophy of institutions; socialism; liberal utopia; moral utopia

This paper analyses Mill's rejection of socialism and his adherence to what we chose tocall 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 asindividual improvement - without endangering the social order. Socialist institutions wereseen as limited in their capacity to promote some of the main features that Mill wished tosee cultivated in manking (such as creativity, uniqueness, originality, autonomy, etc.) andthis explains his rejection of this kind of social alternative. Mill's philosophy of institutionsalso sheds light into the nature of his 'liberal utopia'. In fact. Mill refuses to postulate thespecific form of institutional arrangement that should prevail in an ideal society. What heclearly indicates is that at each stage of development of society the institutions shouldstimulate, to the limit, the improvement of human beings. In this sense we argue that hissocial utopia is anchored in his moral utopia of perfectibility of manking.