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STILLBORN YET NOT WITHOUT INFLUENCE: WHAT MILL’S POLITICAL ECONOMY OWES TO HIS PROJECT OF ETHOLOGY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2021

Christophe Salvat
Christophe Salvat*
Affiliation:
Christophe Salvat: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR7304 Centre Gilles Gaston Granger, Aix-Marseille Université.
*
Corresponding author. Email: christophe.salvat@univ-amu.fr
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Abstract

This article questions the articulation between John Stuart Mill’s initial project of creating a new science dedicated to the means of improving individual character, a science named “ethology,” and the treatise of political economy that he published instead. My claim is that his defense of free competition as well as some of the arguments he opposes to it, and which have often puzzled his readers, actually reveal the moral agenda of his political economy and of some of his political principles, specifically his ambivalent position towards paternalism.

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Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , December 2021 , pp. 506 - 525
Copyright
© The History of Economics Society, 2021

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