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The Ninth Conference of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies:

'The John Stuart Mill Bicentennial Conference, 1806-2006'

The Ninth Conference of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies [ISUS] will be held at University College London, scheduled for 5-7 April 2006, to mark the occasion of the bicentenary of the birth of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873).

University College London has an intimate connection with the English Utilitarians and Philosophic Radicals. Its foundation owed much to their efforts, and was greatly influenced by their educational philosophy. Moreover, John Stuart Mill himself attended UCL to hear the lectures of John Austin, the first Professor of Jurisprudence. It is, therefore, the most apposite venue for this Conference, which aims to reassess the life, thought and legacy of J. S. Mill and his relevance for the twenty-first century.

It is difficult to exaggerate John Stuart Mill's significance and influence. He was not merely an astonishingly versatile thinker who made major contributions to many areas of philosophy. He was also a 'public moralist' and public intellectual par excellence, a committed thinker who, by the last two to three decades of his life, obtained a rare ascendancy over his contemporaries as well as over thinkers and students of subsequent generations. As befits this fundamentally cosmopolitan thinker, his reputation and influence reached far beyond his native country. His major works (as well as some less well known) found translators in several languages very soon after their publication in English. Refugees from various foreign countries, escaping persecution by despotic regimes, could always count on Mill's support — not just moral and political, but also, very often, generous financial support. With a moral earnestness that is bound to surprise people in our more cynical times, Mill made strenuous efforts, 'either as theorist or as practical man, to effect the greatest amount of good compatible with his opportunities'.

Coming fifteen years after the completion of the monumental edition of The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill by the Mill Project of the University of Toronto headed by the late Professor John M. Robson, the Conference will both benefit from, and substantially contribute to, the ever-growing corpus of Mill scholarship. Given the amazing range of Mill's interests and the bewildering variety of fields and disciplines to which he made substantial contributions, the study of his work and thought suffers from the inevitable compartmentalisation that has resulted from the ever-increasing specialisation of knowledge and the development of distinct disciplines and sub-disciplines since his death. Thus, although many people know something about Mill, very few people have a comprehensive picture of Mill. There are many Mill constituencies, many different publics interested in Mill, but rarely, if ever, does a full picture emerge. This Conference aspires to assemble together all the individuals and groups interested in all aspects of Mill's thought and writings and to enable them to benefit from one another's insights. It is expected to be the largest gathering of its kind ever to take place.

Besides lectures and papers on all aspects of Mill's philosophy and thought more generally, the Conference aspires to offer assessments of Mill's activities and strategies as a public figure, a public intellectual engaged in a number of political and intellectual battles. Moreover, Mill's impact on other thinkers, from his lifetime to today, will be of great interest to the Conference, as will be the reception of his writings and ideas in different countries and continents, both during his life and since. Particular attention will also be paid to his place in overall British intellectual history. Papers and panels on any aspect of Mill's thought, activism and impact on the world from his lifetime to today are invited from practitioners of any discipline. Also, papers and panels related to Mill's thought and work only indirectly (e.g. focusing on thinkers or ideas related to him and in particular James Mill, Jeremy Bentham, and others in the utilitarian tradition) will be welcomed by the Conference Committee.

The Conference will be organized by Dr Georgios Varouxakis (Queen Mary, University of London) with the assistance of Professor Paul Kelly (LSE) and Professor Philip Schofield and The Bentham Project (UCL). Hosted by The Bentham Project at UCL, the Conference is being generously sponsored by The British Academy and will be under the auspices of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies and The 'Political Thought' Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association of the U.K.

For more information, proposals for panels, papers, Keynote speakers, or anything else related to the Conference, please contact Georgios Varouxakis (g.varouxakis@qmul.ac.uk).