Humanities Core: Winter 2007
Mill Study Questions

p. 125—To what country is Mill referring in the first paragraph? [Hint: see the second paragraph.]

p. 127—On what grounds does Mill object to the policy expressed as “We did not interfere, because no English interest was involved”?

p. 127-8—What does Mill take representatives of England to mean when this policy is expressed?

p. 128—Does Mill believe that England is better than other nations?

p. 129—What is the “indispensable machinery of the moral” “in the more backward regions of the earth”?

p. 130—What is “wicked…principle” that Mill strongly criticizes?

p. 130—Can nations “go to war for an idea” if it is not in self-defense?

p. 131—Can nations go to war without having been attacked?

p. 131—What two features of “barbarians” mean that the usual rules of international morality do not apply?

p. 131—What moral rules apply to barbarian nations?

p. 132—What is Mill’s objection to England’s subjugation of Oude?

p. 133—Does Mill regard wars of conquest, aggression, or domination among “civilized” nations controversial?

p. 133—What forms of interference in the internal affairs of another “civilized” nation does Mill regard as clearly objectionable?

p. 133—What can outside countries do in case of a “protracted civil war”?

p. 134—Can outside countries help “the people of another in a struggle against their government for free institutions,” when the government is a “native” one?

p. 134—When are people most likely to acquire “the feelings and the virtues needful for maintaining freedom if the government they have doesn’t create them?

p. 135—What sort of intervention is always rightful?

p. 135—What is the aim of “intervention to enforce non-intervention”?