Abstract
This chapter explores the idea of respect for persons in John Stuart Mill’s thought, focusing on individuality and the sense of dignity. Following a brief discussion of the grounds for the protection of individuality and self-development in Mill’s On Liberty (1859), the chapter attempts to bring to the surface the implications of individuality and self-development for social relationships, particularly those of gender, class and race. But can Mill’s utilitarian theory really incorporate the idea that human dignity ought never to be violated, whatever the social gains? The chapter turns for answers to Mill’s theory of an “Art of Life”, his argument on kinds of pleasure, and consequently his views on the relationship between justice and utility. At this point the sense of dignity - a feeling of self-respect - and its relation to self-development and the life of justice comes to the fore. As the chapter argues, the sense of dignity is the foundation upon which the respect of the rights, liberty and individuality of others is to be built.