The purpose of this essay is to analyze and determine if the National Security Law implemented in Hong Kong is in contradiction or in accordances with John Stuart Mill’s four grounds of free speech. What contradictions or accordances can be found between the law and the four grounds of free speech? The theoretical background for this essay consists of information about the relation between Hong Kong and China, the law and its contents, definition of the four grounds of free speech and the protection of free speech in other forms. A qualitative content analysis was done with the use of a systemic analysis to achieve the purpose. The findings where categorized according to the four grounds of free speech. The essay concludes that all the four grounds are contested. This is due to the law granting the government of Hong Kong and its various bodies additional power to control and supervise what is spoken and written. One instance of accordance was found between the law and the four grounds. Furthermore, the right to freedom of speech will diminish on various levels across the region of Hong Kong and the criminalization of an opinion has effectively been instated by the law.

Traditionally, John Stuart Mill has been described as a transitional thinker who fails to fully understand the values he espouses. Critics contend that he cannot simultaneously espouse both utility maximization and the protection of individual choice-making as a non-trumpable value. Like his moral philosophy, Mill’s political thought is also rejected for interspersing, seemingly at random, elements of utilitarianism with concerns about respecting individual choice-making. More recent attempts to bring Mill’s commitment to utilitarianism into line with his respect for individual choice-making are not wholly successful. In this thesis, I offer an interpretation of Mill’s moral philosophy which reconciles the tension between utility maximization and respect for individual choice-making as a non-trumpable value. In addition, I argue that my interpretation of Mill’s moral philosophy also allows us to interpret his political thought. / Master of Arts

This thesis traces versions of the theory of individualism by three major theorists, John Locke, John Stuart Mill and John Dewey, as they criticize existing social, cultural, economic, legal and military conditions of their times. I argue that each theorist modifies the theory of individualism to best suit their understanding of human nature, adapting it where they can and outright removing aspects where they cannot. Based upon each thinker's conception of human nature, their corresponding theory of individualism does justice to that nature. With their view of individualism, each thinker criticizes the activities of their day for its lack of justice to human nature for the bulk of humanity. I examine each thinker's concrete conditions, their theory of human nature, theory of justice and their corresponding theory of individualism. In the first three chapters, I examine first Locke's, then Mill's then Dewey's theory of human nature, justice and individualism. In my final chapter, I critically examine each thinker's theory of individualism and find that John Dewey's is most adequate for our current social conditions. Locke's individualism was a criticism of the absolute rule of aristocratic Land-owners and was an attempt to undermine the conceptual basis for their continued power. John Stuart Mill's individualism was a criticism of John Locke's individualism insofar as majoritarianism had taken root in England and resulted in the "Tyranny of the Majority." Therefore Mill gave high value to the sanctity of the individual even in disagreement with the overwhelming majority. Dewey's theory of individualism largely was a criticism of widespread poverty and abuse of political power in America during the Great Depression. laissez faire economics, combined with cut-throat competitiveness and atomistic individualism had resulted in pervasive injustice and Dewey recommended recognition of our inter-connectedness and continuity rather than our separateness. While I believe Dewey's theory of individualism to be most fit for our current social setting, even his theory suffers from problems yet to be worked out. I lay out these problems in the final chapter and conclude with remarks on what needs yet to be done.

What kind of agent does liberal political thought presuppose? Who is the subject inhabiting modern, liberal conceptions of political order? This dissertation is a study of liberal character-formation, of the kinds of persons, subjects and citizens underlying seminal works in the liberal tradition. More specifically, it explores the forms of character and agency sustaining Immanuel Kant’s and John Stuart Mill’s moral and political philosophies, as well as problems of exclusion and marginalization faced by agents who are, either naturally or circumstantially, unable to develop a properly liberal character. The project is guided by three central aims. The first is expository: the dissertation draws to light the substantial attention that Kant and Mill both devoted to the moral psychology of progressive, liberal agency, and to the conditions, processes and mechanisms forming a liberal character. The second aim is critical, examining the ways in which these ideals of liberal character stand to constrain the inclusiveness and equality at the centre of liberal moral and political doctrines. The final aim is evaluative, reflecting on how we might situate problems of exclusion, both within the broader architectures of Kant’s and Mill’s respective philosophical systems, and in relation to the liberalisms that we inherit from them.

What kind of agent does liberal political thought presuppose? Who is the subject inhabiting modern, liberal conceptions of political order? This dissertation is a study of liberal character-formation, of the kinds of persons, subjects and citizens underlying seminal works in the liberal tradition. More specifically, it explores the forms of character and agency sustaining Immanuel Kant’s and John Stuart Mill’s moral and political philosophies, as well as problems of exclusion and marginalization faced by agents who are, either naturally or circumstantially, unable to develop a properly liberal character. The project is guided by three central aims. The first is expository: the dissertation draws to light the substantial attention that Kant and Mill both devoted to the moral psychology of progressive, liberal agency, and to the conditions, processes and mechanisms forming a liberal character. The second aim is critical, examining the ways in which these ideals of liberal character stand to constrain the inclusiveness and equality at the centre of liberal moral and political doctrines. The final aim is evaluative, reflecting on how we might situate problems of exclusion, both within the broader architectures of Kant’s and Mill’s respective philosophical systems, and in relation to the liberalisms that we inherit from them.

The study examines the thought of Yanagita Kunio (1875-1962), an influential Japanese nationalist thinker best known as a founder of the discipline of Japanese folklore (minzokugaku). The purpose of the study is to bring into light an unredeemed potential of his intellectual and political project as a critique of the way in which modern politics and knowledge systematically suppresses global diversity. The study reads his texts against the backdrop of the modern understanding of space and time and its political and moral implications and traces the historical evolution of his thought that culminates in the establishment of minzokugaku. My reading of Yanagita’s texts draws on three interpretive hypotheses. First, his thought can be interpreted as a critical engagement with John Stuart Mill’s philosophy of history, as he turns Mill’s defense of diversity against Mill’s justification of enlightened despotism in non-Western societies. Second, to counter Mill’s individualistic notion of progressive agency, he turns to a Marxian notion of anthropological space, in which a laboring class makes history by continuously transforming nature, and rehabilitates the common people (jōmin) as progressive agents. Third, in addition to the common people, Yanagita integrates wandering people as a countervailing force to the innate parochialism and conservatism of agrarian civilization. To excavate the unrecorded history of ordinary farmers and wandering people and promote the formation of national consciousness, his minzokugaku adopts travel as an alternative method for knowledge production and political education. In light of this interpretation, the aim of Yanagita’s intellectual and political project can be understood as defense and critique of the Enlightenment tradition. Intellectually, he attempts to navigate between spurious universalism and reactionary particularism by revaluing diversity as a necessary condition for universal knowledge and human progress. Politically, his minzokugaku aims at nation-building/globalization from below by tracing back the history of a migratory process cutting across the existing boundaries. His project is opposed to nation-building from above that aims to integrate the world population into international society at the expense of global diversity.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om det går att rättfärdiga militära interventioner med stöd i klassisk liberal politisk teori. För ändamålet har de klassiskt liberala filosoferna John Locke och John Stuart Mill analyserats. Undersökningen är utförd medelst en text- och idéanalys av några av filosofernas portalverk. Resultatet av studien visar ett tydligt stöd för vissa sorters militära interventioner och att det faktumet är djupt rotat i flera etiska och moraliska överväganden som Locke respektive Mill gör. Slutsatsen i uppsatsen är därav att det finns klassiskt liberala argument för att genomföra militära interventioner.

本文凡六章，除諸言及結論外，分章就政府職能理論，租稅總論租稅各論及公債理論。加以研討。 一、關於政府職能及經費理論: 密爾將政府的職能劃分為必要的與法定稅率之比，則為累退稅。 ( 二 )假如納稅人的邊際儲蓄傾向等於一減較小級距約有效稅率與法定稅率之比，則為比例稅。 ( 三 )假如納稅人的邊際儲蓄傾向小於一減較小級距的有效稅率與法定稅率之比，則為遞減累進稅。 三、租稅各論: ( 一 )所得稅: 他曾明確指出，實行所得稅必須具備四個要件: (1) 最低生活費免稅; (2) 就超過最低生活費以上部份，按此例課稅; (3) 儲蓄投資部份不計入課稅所得; 及(4) 公眾道德良好。人人皆誠實申報。而第(4) 個要件為先決條件。他一再地說，儲蓄投資不予免稅的所得稅，不能算是公平的。因為他認為若無此項免稅，則對於儲蓄不無重複課稅之嫌。 ( 二 )土地稅: 對於非因勞力或資本支出所致的土地增值( 應剔除貨幣貶值兩增值的部份 )，國家得視需要，課以百分之百以下( 含100% )的任何稅率。亦即土地( 包括市地及農地 )因自然因素而引任意的兩種。他以為政府除了國防、司法、治安及教育等必職能外，不宜做得大多。因此主張政府的課稅職能愈小愈好。換言之，既持經費縮小論。然則，他認為政府對於攸關公眾利益而為人民所不願經營者，應責無旁貸的負責執行，諸如道路、橋樑、港埠、水利工程等基本公共設施，應加建設，以利經濟發展的嘉惠百姓。他指陳法律規定未盡完善與司法行政效率低落將產生不良的經濟後果。但暴君誅求，貪官斂財，其為害尤甚。自由約喪失較之生命財產保障的不足，其弊損為大。他不贊成政府對高利貸及工人為工資問題所採取的集體行動而加以干涉。 二、租稅總論: 他贊揚亞當斯密司的課稅四原則，然而，關於公平原則，他卻主張採能力說，而按此課稅，也就是平等犧牲的原則。他所謂比例課稅，係指就超過最低生活費以上部份比例課征。但又主張儲蓄與投資的部份應予免稅，故實質上，可能是遞減累進稅，或比例稅，或累退稅，端視納稅人的邊際儲蓄傾向而定: ( 一 )假使納稅人的邊際儲蓄傾向大於一減較小級距約有效稅率與額度等兩個原則，則未嘗不可發行公債。

This thesis is on John Stuart Mill’s imperialism. Mill’s classic text Considerations on Representative Government is framed as a treatise of a theorem for guiding “civilized” governors in imperially democratizing “non-civilized others” for the ends of historically moving humanity towards “civilizational progress.” This theorem is broken down into an architecture which consists of the first four chapters of Considerations and a conceptual architecture consisting of three notions: imperialism, democracy, and good governance. In outlining this theorem, gaps and shortcomings currently existing in the body of literature that engages Mill’s relationship with imperialism are identified. The theorem and the secondary literature are also used to problematize and argue against the call by some authors for a turn to Mill’s imperialism.

This thesis is on John Stuart Mill’s imperialism. Mill’s classic text Considerations on Representative Government is framed as a treatise of a theorem for guiding “civilized” governors in imperially democratizing “non-civilized others” for the ends of historically moving humanity towards “civilizational progress.” This theorem is broken down into an architecture which consists of the first four chapters of Considerations and a conceptual architecture consisting of three notions: imperialism, democracy, and good governance. In outlining this theorem, gaps and shortcomings currently existing in the body of literature that engages Mill’s relationship with imperialism are identified. The theorem and the secondary literature are also used to problematize and argue against the call by some authors for a turn to Mill’s imperialism.