Why should we be interested in Mill’s aesthetic theory? Though a moderately important representative of one school of criticism, he did not write extensively on the subject, nor with any great originality. Moreover, his views on aesthetics, unlike his views in logic, ethics, politics, etc., were not, as far as I know, terribly influential. Rather than the foundation of thinking in this subject, his writings are more like the roofing or interior design in a house designed and built by someone else. Nevertheless, Mill considers aesthetics with his characteristic seriousness and thoughtfulness, and this gives his positions an intrinsic interest. More important perhaps are the insights that his views on aesthetics can offer for understanding his ethical theory, which frequently differentiates itself from Bentham’s and from others through the striking use of aesthetic conceptualizations of human life – a call to attend to our lives as works of art and to character and action in terms of their beauty and ugliness. We cannot properly engage Mill’s ethical views without seeing how his aesthetics contextualize them. My hope is that such an investigation will also facilitate an appreciation of the philosophical content and import of an incorporation of the aesthetic into the ethical.
Perfection and Immortality: The Aesthetic Turn in Mill’s Ethics
JVF Conference Papers
