Analysis Of Mill's Mountains Without Handrails

Mill also addresses the idea of governments interfering in an individual’s life in some form of help or benefit without infringing on any liberties by presenting his three objections. The first of which being the idea that “… when the thing to be done is likely to be better done by individuals than by the government.” (Mill p.121). He believed that individuals can best decide matters which pertain to their own life because they are the ones who are most “personally interested in it.” (Mill p.121) and because the individual is indeed usually the one who possesses the most intimate knowledge of their own life that they should not allow others to decide what is best for them personally. The second of Mill’s objections is that even when the individual

Sax has quite a different view when it comes to the ways that paternalism should be utilized by a society and how they apply to liberal neutrality. Sax believes that certain limits or regulations must be put in place to allow for the betterment of certain human experiences and to allow people to live a version of the good life that he considers to be superlative. This is made apparent by the very title of his book Mountains Without Handrails, in which he draws a line in the sand as to what he thinks about the cable that had been installed upon Yosemite’s Half Dome Rock. To help convey his version of the good life and his contempt for the cables installed on Half Dome, Sax cites Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea in which he writes, “Man strives for mastery and yet finds triumph only when he recognizes that he is not the master.” (Sax p.41). This speaks to Sax’s disdain for the Half Dome cables and other related creature comforts that are wanted and needed by the numerous urban explorers who regularly visit the parks. Sax believes that "Engagement with nature provides an opportunity for detachment from the submissiveness, conformity and mass behavior that dog us in our daily lives; it offers a chance to express distinctiveness and to explore our deeper longings" (Sax p.42). It is most likely these “deeper longings” as well as his thoughts on contemplative or “reflective recreation” that help to define Sax’s version of the good life.

To answer this question one must analyze Mark Sagoff’s The Economy of the Earth, specifically the chapter in which this question is originally posed as it relates to the philosophies of Sax and Mill. In the chapter titled Can Environmentalists be Liberals? Sagoff makes a distinction between two different types of liberals, those types being the Utilitarian Liberal and the Deontological Liberal respectively. Sagoff states that, “The deontological approach… recognizes that justice, equality, and autonomy are the irreducible conditions under which freedom is possible.” (Sagoff p.155). From this statement, it can be fairly stated that John Stuart Mill is himself a deontological liberal, especially since his highest version of the good life is heavily dependent on the individual being as autonomous and free as possible. Sagoff also presents thoughts as to what defines the utilitarian liberal. He states that, “…utilitarian liberals may argue… that rights themselves are justified only because they maximize overall welfare.” (Sagoff p.152). This idea of utilitarian liberalism falls in line with Joseph L. Sax’s views that there exist forms of good that are more weighty and important than others in that they improve the greater good of society as a whole rather than only the good