Searching for Identity: Is J.S. Mill also a Normative Cultural Relativist?
Searching for Identity: Is J.S. Mill also a Normative Cultural Relativist?

Summary/Abstract: The article explores and attempts the possibility of reading normative cultural relativism into J. S. Mill’s On Liberty. This article examines J. S. Mill’s On Liberty. It argues that even though Mill is often described as a moral universalist as evident in the methodology employed in the postulation of his ethical utilitarianism, one could also argue that his position maintained in On Liberty qualifies him to be a normative cultural relativist. Basically, the article contends that beyond the universalist reading of Mill’s works, he is qualified to be called a normative cultural relativist. The article interrogates and interprets the position maintained by J. S. Mill’s in the On Liberty that commits him to normative cultural relativism. The paper concludes that anyone that maintains such a position as Mill need not necessarily reject normative cultural relativism.

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