POL320 Tutorial

01/24/2013

Essay
Clear essay THESIS, structure, argument, outline
o Topic sentences + support + evidence
Reread paper for logical flow + grammar + typos
o Get others to read paper.
Comparative component of paper
o Main ideas covered by both
o Differences
Mill
Before Rousseau = public opinion is unfavorably contrasted with
general knowledge
o Opinion is contrasted unfavorably with knowledge
o Pejorative sense of opinion = even more acute when you add
the word public to it
Hobbes = Leviathan = give people complete control
Rousseau = Public opinion = only legitimate basis for the exercise
of power = what does the public think constitutes the general will?
o Public opinion takes on a new status = fundamental principle
for how to discern legitimate political power. Imagines a
homogeneous small ideal society.
Similar to Kant = What is enlightenment? More diffuse. He
doesnt imagine a homogeneous assembly of citizens. More modern
public sphere.
o Enlightenment is maturity, thinking for oneself =
heterogeneous
o Need for laws conducive to the public use of reason
o Need for spaces for people to be able to have discourse and
enlightenment.
o Only adopt laws which could be willed by law = legitimacy of
the state depends on public opinion.
Rousseau & kant = emphasis on self-government
Freedom as self-legislation = need for public opinion,
will of the people. Freedom and legitimacy ties to
obedience of self given laws.
In the span of 100 years = view of public opinion returns to
negative state = Mill sees it in its pre-Roussean state = it is
dangerous
o Public opinion to Mill = uncritical views of uneducated masses

Impediment to autonomy = uncritically following the

will of the majority
Mill still a democrat but sees both sides
Rousseau & Kant = less critical faith in the capacity of public opinion
to discern in representing the will of the people
o Mill more suspicious of general will = means of expression has
been democratized to a state of it being danger to discuss
ones opinion
Ordinary people arent thoughtful and critical like
philosophers when it comes to public reasoning.
Patriotic citizens cant do this = as they care more
about their own partisans
In Mills time = democracy has grown = it has become bigger, more
heterogeneous, more liberal = and this can have public opinion
start to undermine freedom.
o Majority is bigger, differences are wider, = more danger of
coercion.
o Social power of tyranny of the majority = coercion which is
implicitly dominant
No more rational thought for what people really want, it
is brainwashed
Hegel = consciousness in a material world = freedom is when
consciousness transforms the world around you.
o Initial assumption = master wins the battle for recognition
and subdues the slave successfully
o Ironic outcome = master sits by idly, as the slave transforms
the world by work = realizes their own consciousness and
worth via working with materials and causing change.
o Mills ideal = we dont just let the material world to act upon
our consciousness. Kant agrees. Materials shouldnt dictate
meaningfulness.
Freedom to change the world in light of our ideas,
rather than think of the world transforming us.
We are masters over the world rather than passive
slaves to it. = social power
Consciousness ought to determine the material world =
via the ideas in our minds = Mill & Marx agree
But are more forth right = show how the material
world stultifies out consciousness
How majorities subtly implicitly alter human
consciousness
Mills true hero =

o Individuality, true original character

o Public sphere discussion must be seen with a critical eye
o We need eccentric individuals to poke holes in the self
certainties of majorities
o Need for discourse.
o Majorities need to be taken out of their sense of certainty
o Humans are fundamentally fallible
Interested in knowing truth, but fallible
o Which is why the public sphere must be maximally inclusive
as possible but also we must have a critical distance from it
So that we can still question the majority
o Questioning and puncturing the truth spoken and attempts
to confirm it by the majority = progress
o Socratic method of continues questioning of peoples desires,
principles, motives = pedagogy of discomfort = progress
Mill celebrates revolutionist personalities = Burke was against them
o Extremes fulfill a function still
o This extreme is good to be exposed to = to make us question
it and be firmer in our correct conviction that they have
deplorable doctrines
o Extremes could also be right = minority voices benefit either
way!
o Thoughtless masses in modernity = have less opportunity to
dominate the world
What Mill aims to do
Wallstonecraft & Mill similarities
o Disagree with uncritical opinion of the majority
o Paternalism
o Master Slave dialectic