The Relationship between Epistemology and Religion in J. S. Mill's Thought

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the religious descriptions of J. S. Mill in relation to his epistemology. As far as religion was concerned, Mill, as is well known, was not educated in a theistic atmosphere. His attitude to christianity may be open to some serious questioning. Mill maintained empiricist positions throughout his life. Many empiricists adopted an agnostic position. Of course Mill approved of agnosticism and attempted to reject the “Argument for a First Cause” as having no basis in experience. This paper discloses Mill's epistemological attitude and the new interpretation of “Religion of Humanity” that differ from recent studies. One of the recent trends of Mill studies is to focus on his “Religion of Humanity” and to show its resemblance to that of Auguste Comte. However, this interpretation ignores the fact that Mill was critical to the latter day argument of Comte. In contrast, this paper deals the religious writing of Mill with the careful examination of his discussion of epistemology.
Section one of this paper presents recent studies of Mill's religious thought. As previously noted, Mill's religious descriptions are combined with his epistemology. This paper states that the only reseach of Three Essays on Religion is imperfect, and in order to grasp exactly Mill's religious thought, we have to deal with his wide works, and study from an all-around view. However, Mill's conventional religious studies were concentrated in his Three Essays on Religion. Recently, however, original research of Mill has focused on “Religion of Humanity.” Such studies include those of Humberger and Raeder. Section one states that their studies are novel but inadequate regarding their treatment of Comte.
Section two of this paper delves into Mill's religious directions. This section is composed of two segments. The first segment shows that Mill's religious directions are of three types. The second segment describes Mill's particular Argument of Design.
Section three of this paper provides a close discussion of two famous intuitionists of the nineteenth century, William Whewell and Sir William Hamilton. Mill made pointed remarks about Whewell and Hamilton's intuitionism. The propose of this section is to explain why Mill attacked intuitionism.
Section four constitutes the core of this paper. This section considers Mill's “Religion of Humanity” and Inverse Deductive, or Historical Method, which he treated in the sixth volume of A System of Logic. From the standpoint of human nature, Mill tries to rewrite the “Doctrine of Necessity.” Mill had to accept a distance between a social phenomenon and his epistemology. Mill states human actions are never uncontrollable, and in order to show this idea, Mill suggests the Historical Method.
Thus, when we trace Mill's religious descriptions, we discover Mill's particular-epistemological thought relating to human will. The relationship of Mill's “Religion of Humanity” and the Historical Method lead tothe conclusion that Mill's religious background has an epistemological dimension.