From the Logic of the Particular to the Plea of Minority: A Philosophical Appraisal of John Stuart Mill’s Idiology

ABSTRACT: The problem of minorities1is one of the constancies that is more and more being highlightednotably in the battling field of the social, economic, political, cultural and the military. But giving the diverseangles from which we may want to draw the question of minority2, or better still, make it elastic, there is a highrisk of ignoring the fact that the latter is above all a philosophical problem. The struggle for the emancipation ofminorities cannot be purely legal or moral; it must be rooted in a broader conception of man and the cosmos.This is the point of view defended by John Stuart Mill and some English authors. More precisely, he appeals foran argument which requires a revision of logic in connection with their revision of the cosmology, a revisionwhich prepares what Wilhelm Windelband will later refer to as “idiological” logic. This article aims at showingthat, faced with complex situations, generalized definition covers within it some frustrations giving that theworld is first and foremost an agglomeration of private lives. But, can we thus value individuals and socialgroups, without at the same time absolving the notion of private life and without a transcendental negation ofvalues? Furthermore, should one of these arguments in favor of minority base the acceptance of all minorities?Besides, is it not pertinent we differentiate between objective minority (women, racial, Disabled) that can makea consensus, and a subjective minority (L.G.B.T.) whose acceptance can be problematic?

KEYWORDS:“Idiological” logic, minority, objective minority, subjective minority, liberalism.