ABSTRACT
John Stuart Mill's thought represents a deepening of the Benthamite tradition as well as a shift in direction. Mill feared the tyranny of the majority while early utilitarian thinking had been promajoritarian. Mill's majority is more vital and alive because it is a psychological force. He speaks in the mood of Tocqueville who feared that in the impact of the mass all intelligent variety is lost. The majority, in the form of mass opinion, becomes an oppressive instrument for the shaping of minds. Mill touches on the psychological matrix from which behavior arises. David Riesman, working in the tradition of Mill, Tocqueville, and Fromm, also objects to the standardization of men. Mill's solution was to retreat from the democracy as developed earlier by Bentham. Mill saw the majority as a live social force and not just as a numerical matter. Mill emerges as a liberal who goes beyond politics to society.
