Delayed Reaction

1848, the Year of Revolutions

Having spent a couple of weeks looking at the thoughts of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, interesting and relevant though they are, it’s time to get back to the stuff of revolutions because it's 1848 and the French, God bless ‘em, are far from done.

John Stuart Mill On Liberty

Having taken a look at the influence Jeremy Bentham has on our world today, I’m moving on to look at someone who had an even greater influence: John Stuart Mill. Why? Because Mill, a man way, way ahead of his time, put liberty front and centre in his political work

Jeremy Bentham and Utilitarianism

I said last week that I’d look at how British liberals picked up the baton from the Enlightenment and developed liberal thinking. And I’m going to begin with Jeremy Bentham, the man who gave us utilitarianism and much more. And don’t worry about utilitarianism, I am not going to get too heavy (I can’t) but it is very important and pretty straightforward really.

Liberalism

Having looked at revolutions in England, America and France, the idea of liberty is what powers through most and it gave rise to a political ideology that we’ll be familiar with today: liberalism. So, this episode takes stock of where we are at in the wake of the French Revolution with liberal ideas.

Concluding Thoughts on the French Revolution

This is the episode where I try to put the French Revolution in perspective. Just how significant was it?