The same persons who cry down Logic will generally warn you against Political Economy. It is unfeeling, they will tell you. It recognises unpleasant facts. For my part, the most unfeeling thing I know of is the law of gravitation: it breaks the neck of the best and most amiable person without scruple, if he forgets for a single moment to give heed to it. The winds and waves too are very unfeeling. Would you advise those who go to sea to deny the winds and waves – or to make use of them, and find the means of guarding against their dangers? My advice to you is to study the great writers on Political Economy, and hold firmly by whatever in them you find true; and depend upon it that if you are not selfish or hard-hearted already, Political Economy will not make you so.
That last sentence makes it sound like it makes you selfish and hard-hearted. I noticed it could be interpreted to be that it will make you at least one, which seems more accurate. If you desire to be kind-hearted and help others, you will either have to accept that you can’t help others if you’re kind-hearted, or stop trying to help others. You don’t have to be selfish and you don’t have to be hard-hearted, but you do have to be selfish or hard-hearted.
Also, considering Mill is considered the father of Utilitarianism, it seems unlikely that he was preaching egoism.
-- John Stuart Mill
That last sentence makes it sound like it makes you selfish and hard-hearted. I noticed it could be interpreted to be that it will make you at least one, which seems more accurate. If you desire to be kind-hearted and help others, you will either have to accept that you can’t help others if you’re kind-hearted, or stop trying to help others. You don’t have to be selfish and you don’t have to be hard-hearted, but you do have to be selfish or hard-hearted.
Also, considering Mill is considered the father of Utilitarianism, it seems unlikely that he was preaching egoism.