John Stuart Mill on "legitimate socialism" and the 1848 revolution in Paris

McCabe, Helen

Abstract

According to his Autobiography, the 1848 revolution in Paris prompted Mill to present his politics “under the general designation of Socialist” in the 1852 edition of Principles of Political Economy. Yet some read, in his later Chapters on Socialism, a withdrawal from this position. However, Mill’s concerns about “revolutionary socialism” did not preclude him from advocating either revolution or socialism: a “legitimate socialism”, violent only in self-defence, and which did not involve the wholesale disappearance of private property but favoured producer cooperation over state-provision, must aspire to “all of ‘liberty, equality, and fraternity’ which is capable of being realised now, and […] prepare the way for all which can be realised hereafter”.

Citation

McCabe, H. (2020). John Stuart Mill on "legitimate socialism" and the 1848 revolution in Paris. Revue philosophique de la France et de l'étranger, 145(3), 333-351. https://doi.org/10.3917/rphi.203.0333

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 23, 2019
• Publication Date: 2020-07
• Deposit Date: Sep 24, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 1, 2021
• Journal: Revue philosophique de la France et de l'étranger
• Print ISSN: 0035-3833
• Electronic ISSN: 2104-385X
• Publisher: Presses Universitaires de France
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 145
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 333-351
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/rphi.203.0333
• Keywords: Philosophy
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2653327
• Publisher URL: https://www.cairn.info/revue-philosophique-2020-3-page-333.htm