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‘A Medicine for my State of Mind’: The Role of Wordsworth in John Stuart Mill's Moral and Psychological Development

McKinnell, Liz

‘A Medicine for my State of Mind’: The Role of Wordsworth in John Stuart Mill's Moral and Psychological Development Thumbnail


Authors

Liz McKinnell



Abstract

According to Jeremy Bentham's account of happiness, pleasure is understood as homogeneous, without qualitative differences between pleasures, and the relation between pleasure and its objects is understood as morally and psychologically arbitrary. John Stuart Mill's ‘mental crisis’ emerged as he realized the psychological impossibility of living according to this view. His recovery was aided by engagement with the poetry of Wordsworth, through which he developed the notion that the cultivation of character and sentiments is an essential element of a good life. I aim to explore Mill's engagement with Wordsworth, and shed light on how Mill felt able to reconcile hedonic utilitarianism with his new view of the ‘inner life’ of the individual.

Citation

McKinnell, L. (2015). ‘A Medicine for my State of Mind’: The Role of Wordsworth in John Stuart Mill's Moral and Psychological Development. Utilitas, 27(01), 43-60. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0953820814000302

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Feb 3, 2015
Publication Date Mar 1, 2015
Deposit Date Jul 7, 2014
Publicly Available Date Dec 2, 2014
Journal Utilitas
Print ISSN 0953-8208
Electronic ISSN 1741-6183
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 27
Issue 01
Pages 43-60
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/s0953820814000302

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