John Stuart Mill: Fallibilism, Expertise, and the Politics-Science Analogy
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Description
Representative government, according to J. S. Mill, is much more restless and onward-moving than government by consent. A defeated minority may agree to a decision-making procedure even while disapproving of a particular decision; but to the outcome of such a procedure, those who are outvoted, by definition, do not consent. What they can do is discuss and, in discussing, they can contribute vitally to a process of collective learning. Public learning is the heart of liberal democracy, or so Mill believed. His political theory was thus indissolubly linked to his theory of knowledge or, at the very least, to his theory of the growth of knowledge.
Source Publication
Knowledge And Politics: Case Studies In The Relationship Between Epistemology And Political Philosophy
Source Editors/Authors
Marcelo Dascal, Ora Gruengard
Publication Date
1989
Recommended Citation
Holmes, Stephen, "John Stuart Mill: Fallibilism, Expertise, and the Politics-Science Analogy" (1989). Faculty Chapters. 819.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/819
