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Contesting Patrilineal Descent in Political Theory: James Mill and Nineteenth-Century Feminism
- Hypatia
- Indiana University Press
- Volume 15, Number 1, Winter 2000
- pp. 151-174
- Article
- Additional Information
Liberal philosopher James Mill has been understood as being unambiguously antifeminist. However, Terence Ball, supposedly informed by a feminist perspective, has argued for a new interpretation. Ball has reconceptualized Mill as a feminist and the sole source of the feminism of his son (J. S. Mill), suggesting a revision of the received wisdom about their relationship to the development of nineteenth century feminist thought. This paper takes issue with Ball's "new interpretation" and its presumed feminist basis.