James Fitzjames Stephen,John Stuart Mill,and the Victorian Theory of Toleration |
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Authors: | Greg Conti |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USAgconti@fas.harvard.edu |
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Abstract: | Due to his famous conflict with John Stuart Mill, James Fitzjames Stephen is often assumed to have been an opponent of toleration and intellectual freedom and a defender of authoritarian or reactionary principles. These assumptions are misleading. Stephen was, and was known in his time to have been, a champion of toleration. This essay provides a comprehensive overview of his writing on these themes, drawing from a wider array of texts than is usually considered in the study of the Stephen-Mill controversy. Contrary to popular belief, Stephen had a deep and multi-faceted argument in favor of toleration. As a critic of contending theories of toleration and freedom of discussion (especially Mill’s), Stephen was concerned to defeat what he saw as the resurgence of a priori principles in Victorian political philosophy and to combat the expansion of a proper notion of toleration to include a cluster of beliefs and attitudes of which he disapproved. In his approach to these issues Stephen was, arguably, as representative of Victorian thinking as the author of On Liberty. |
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Keywords: | James Fitzjames Stephen John Stuart Mill John Locke Carl toleration freedom of expression utilitarianism |
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