This was also the great key to Western civilization and its history, Mill argued: the increasing empowerment of the individual. “What has made the European family of nations an improving, instead of stationary, portion of mankind?” Mill asked. Not any innate superiority, but “their remarkable diversity of character and culture.” This diversity has created a “plurality of paths for its progressive and many-sided development,” from the various Greek city-states to modern nations: indeed the more the better.
