La science politique de John Stuart Mill

This essay explores aspects of John Stuart Mill’s approach to social and political science in the Considerations on Representative Government (1861) with an emphasis on the significance of character or ‘ethology’ in this science. The starting point is a discussion of psychology and ethology in Book VI of the Logic (1843). This conception is examined in terms of Mill’s framework of inductive and deductive science and the distinction between art and science where the views of Mill and Jeremy Bentham are contrasted. Given Mill’s view of the relationship between art and science, the science of ethology (including political ethology) assumes a more prominent position in Mill’s thought than any political art or any distinctly political science. Contrary to many commentators, it is argued that Mill never abandoned his commitment to ethology, as is clear from the discussion of ‘the ideally best form of government’ in the Considerations. Mill’s conception of ‘active character’ here underpins and directs what might otherwise be seen as a traditional account of forms of government. The cultivation of active character becomes an essential condition for the success of representative government. The essay concludes with remarks on Mill’s emphasis on society for his account of liberty in On Liberty (1859) and suggests that he considered new ways of understanding the traditional processes of government.