John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Nietzsche both analyzed the outlooks fostered by the ancients, Christianity and modern morality in regard to the qualities of character that each group developed. The two men held similar views regarding the Christians and modern morality believing that each was creating a herd like mentality where individualism was being suppressed. The two interestingly differed on their view of the ancients, where Nietzsche disagreed with their rationality, Mill praised their individualism. For starters, Nietzsche viewed the character that each society developed in the context of whether or not they fostered the will to power. Will to power for Nietzsche was the driving force of man, and he believed that any hindrance or alteration
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“Its ideal is negative rather than positive; passive rather than active; Innocence rather than Nobleness; Abstinence from Evil, rather than energetic Pursuit of Good: in its precepts (as has been well said) "thou shalt not" predominates unduly over "thou shalt."” (On Liberty, Chapter II) For Mill the true Christian doctrine was never fully explored by a majority of its followers and was an institution that pushed its members away from active truth seeking. For this reason he did not believe that it was developing individuals in the correct …show more content…
Mill saw the problem with modern society as resulting from the power of both the tyranny of the majority but also the tyranny of public opinion. He believed that public opinion had grown too strong to the point where “At present individuals are lost in the crowd. In politics it is almost a triviality to say that public opinion now rules the world.” (On Liberty, chapter III). The “lost in the crowd” metaphor is a powerful one that illustrates Mill’s view. He saw individualism being suppressed by the masses in a way that did not allow the modern individual to see where he was going, or to act in a way that was contrary to the current direction of the crowd. Because the individual in modern society is not able to be an individual he is suppressed in his own ability to flourish and society is hurt due to the lack of innovators and truth seekers that are
“Its ideal is negative rather than positive; passive rather than active; Innocence rather than Nobleness; Abstinence from Evil, rather than energetic Pursuit of Good: in its precepts (as has been well said) "thou shalt not" predominates unduly over "thou shalt."” (On Liberty, Chapter II) For Mill the true Christian doctrine was never fully explored by a majority of its followers and was an institution that pushed its members away from active truth seeking. For this reason he did not believe that it was developing individuals in the correct …show more content…
Mill saw the problem with modern society as resulting from the power of both the tyranny of the majority but also the tyranny of public opinion. He believed that public opinion had grown too strong to the point where “At present individuals are lost in the crowd. In politics it is almost a triviality to say that public opinion now rules the world.” (On Liberty, chapter III). The “lost in the crowd” metaphor is a powerful one that illustrates Mill’s view. He saw individualism being suppressed by the masses in a way that did not allow the modern individual to see where he was going, or to act in a way that was contrary to the current direction of the crowd. Because the individual in modern society is not able to be an individual he is suppressed in his own ability to flourish and society is hurt due to the lack of innovators and truth seekers that are