John Stuart Mill (May 20, 1806 - May 8, 1873), commonly quoted as J.S. Mill, was a British philosopher, political economist, and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he made a great contribution to social theory, political theory and political economy. Called "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century," John Mill developed a political concept that justified individual freedom as opposed to unlimited state and public control. His thoughts are still popular and relevant.
John Stuart Mill: Philosophy of Freedom and Rationalism
Mill was a proponent of utilitarianism - an ethical theory developed by his predecessor Jeremy Bentham. He took part in the study of scientific methodology, although his knowledge on this topic was based on the works of other thinkers, in particular, William Wavell, John Herschel and Auguste Comte, as well as on studies conducted by Alexander Bain. Mill entered into a written discussion with Wavell.
A member of the Liberal Party, he was also the second member of parliament who called for the introduction of suffrage for women after Henry Hunt in 1832.
Biography of John Stuart Mill, briefly
Our hero was born on 13th Rodney Street in Pentonville, Middlesex, and was the eldest son of a Scottish philosopher, historian and economist James Mill and Harriet Barrow. John Mill was educated by his father on the advice and assistance of Jeremy Bentham and Francis Place. He was given extremely strict upbringing, and he was deliberately limited in communication with peers, except for brothers and sisters. His father, a follower of Bentham and a supporter of associativity, wanted to educate a brilliant intellectual who would promote utilitarianism after he and Bentham die.
John Mill was a very developed child. He describes his education in his autobiography. At the age of three, he was taught Greek. By the age of eight, he had read The Fables of Aesop, The Anabasis of Xenophon and all of Herodotus, and was also familiar with the work of Lucian, Diogenes of Laertes, Isocrates and the six dialogues of Plato. He also read history in English and studied arithmetic, physics and astronomy.
Young talent
At the age of eight, Mill began to study Latin, Euclidean works and algebra, was appointed a school teacher for the youngest children in the family. His main interest remained history, but he studied all Latin and Greek authors and by the age of ten could easily read Plato and Demosthenes. His father also thought that it was important for young John Mill to study poetry and learn to write poetry. One of the earliest poetic compositions of our hero was a continuation of the Illiad. In his free time, he also enjoyed reading about the natural sciences. He was also interested in popular novels such as Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe.
Interest in politics and economics
His father's work, History of British India, was published in 1818. Immediately after that, at about the age of twelve, the young child prodigy began to carefully study scholastic logic, while reading Aristotle's logical treatises in the original language. The following year, he became acquainted with political economy and studied Adam Smith and David Ricardo with his father, eventually forming his classic economic understanding of factors of production. His son's knowledge of economics helped his father write the Element of Political Economy in 1821, a textbook to propagate the ideas of the Ricardian economy. However, the book was not popular. Ricardo, who was a close friend of the father of our hero, usually invited young Mill to his house for a walk to talk about political economy.
At the age of fourteen, Mill spent a year in France with the family of Sir Samuel Bentham, brother of Jeremy Bentham. The landscape that he saw instilled in him a lifelong love of the mountains. The lively and friendly lifestyle of the French also made a deep impression on him. In Montpellier, he attended winter courses in chemistry, zoology, logic, and also in higher mathematics. In Paris, he spent several days in the house of the famous economist Jean-Baptiste Say, a friend of Mill's father. There he met many leaders of the liberal party, as well as other famous Parisians, including Henri Saint-Simon.
Personality crisis
At twenty, John Mill became depressed and even thought about suicide. According to the opening paragraphs of chapter V of his autobiography, he asked himself whether the creation of a just society is really the goal of his life, will this really make him happy? His heart replied no, and not surprisingly, he lost his taste for life due to the pursuit of this goal. In the end, William Wordsworth's poetry showed him that beauty breeds compassion for others and stimulates joy. With new joy, he continued to strive for a fair society, but with great pleasure for himself. He considered this episode to be one of the most important shifts in his thinking.
Friendship and influence
Mill was on friendly terms with Auguste Comte, the founder of positivism and sociology. Comte's sociology was, rather, an early philosophy of science.
As a nonconformist who refused to subscribe to thirty-nine articles of the Church of England, Mill did not have the right to study at Oxford or Cambridge University. Instead, he followed his father, taking a job at the East India Company, and enrolled at University College London to attend a lecture course by John Austin, the first professor of law. He was elected a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1856.
Official career
Mill's career as a colonial administrator in the British East India Company lasted from 17 years, from 1823 to 1858, when the company was abolished in favor of the direct rule of the British crown over India. In 1836, he was appointed to the Political Department, where he was responsible for correspondence regarding the relations of the Company with the princely states of India, and in 1856, he was finally appointed to the post of Examiner of Indian Correspondence.
Key works and ideas
There are many books that John Mill wrote - “On Freedom”, “A few words about non-intervention”, etc. In these and other works, our hero defended British imperialism, arguing that there is a fundamental difference between civilized and barbarian peoples. Mill believed that countries such as India and China were once progressive, but now they have become stagnant and barbaric, which legitimized British rule as benevolent despotism "provided that the goal is to improve [barbarians]." When the crown gained control of the colonies in India, he was instructed to improve the laws of government over these lands. Thus, he became the author of the Memorandum of Improvements in the Management of India. He was offered a seat on the Council of India, the body created to advise the new Secretary of State for this colony, but he refused, citing his disagreement with the new system of government.
Personal life
In 1851, Mill married Harriet Taylor, after 21 years of friendship. Taylor was married when they met, and their relationship was close, but appeared to be chaste, friendly, and platonic until her husband died. Brilliant in itself, Taylor had a significant impact on Mill's work and ideas, both during their friendship and during marriage. Relations with Harriet Taylor inspired the thinker to fight for women's rights. He refers to her influence in his latest edition of Freedom, which was published shortly after her death. Taylor died in 1858 after a severe congestive pulmonary disease, having lived happily married for 7 years.
Later years and death
From 1865 to 1868, Mill served as Lord Rector of the University of St. Andrews. In the same period, 1865-1868, he was a Member of Parliament from Westminster. In parliament, he represented the Liberal Party. During his tenure as a deputy, Mill advocated the autonomy of Ireland. In 1866, he became the second person in the history of parliament, who called for women to have the right to vote, vigorously defending this position in subsequent years. He also became an active supporter of such social reforms as the creation of trade unions and farmer cooperatives. In "Considerations for a Representative Government," Mill called for various reforms of parliament and the voting process itself. In April 1868, he approved the preservation of the death penalty for crimes such as aggravated murder.
John Stuart Mill was interested in economics from a young age. In his views on religion, he was an agnostic.
Our hero died in 1873 in Avignon, France, where his body was buried next to the body of his wife. What John Stuart Mill wrote about is about freedom, morality, politics and economics. But he always avoided the topic of death.