Mill on Liberty: A Defence

In the first edition of this book Gray offers an indirect-utilitarian interpretation of Mill's moral theory, and argues that this provides a suitable foundation for the Liberty Principle and Mill's liberalism more generally. He contends that the resulting position is a very attractive one. It is a compelling piece of exgesis. In the second edition he still maintains this reading of Mill, but no longer finds Mill's liberalism attractive. His primary complaint is its euro-centrism. He now also buys a number of other objections which he discussed at length and rejected in the first edition, and I found this a little disappointing; it is one thing to say you overlooked a point in your earlier work, but another admit you made numerous bad arguments. And he is very quick to dismiss his own earlier rebuttals; you have the sense that once he gave up on Millian liberalism he felt he had to accuse it of every possible sin.