John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill
1873 portrait by George Frederic Watts
Member of Parliament
for City of Westminster
In office
25 July 1865 – 17 November 1868
Serving with Robert Grosvenor
Preceded byDe Lacy Evans
Succeeded byWilliam Henry Smith
Personal details
Born(1806-05-20)20 May 1806
Pentonville, Middlesex, England
Died7 May 1873(1873-05-07) (aged 66)
Avignon, Vaucluse, France
Political partyLiberal
Spouse
(m. 1851; died 1858)
Parents
Alma materUniversity College London

Philosophy career
Era
RegionWestern philosophy
School
Academic career
Influences
Main interests
Notable ideas
Signature

John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873)[1] was an English philosopher, political economist, politician and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism, he contributed widely to social theory, political theory, and political economy. Dubbed "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century" by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,[2] he conceived of liberty as justifying the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state and social control.[3]

Mill was a proponent of utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed by his predecessor Jeremy Bentham. He contributed to the investigation of scientific methodology, though his knowledge of the topic was based on the writings of others, notably William Whewell, John Herschel, and Auguste Comte, and research carried out for Mill by Alexander Bain. He engaged in written debate with Whewell.[4]

A member of the Liberal Party and author of the early feminist work The Subjection of Women, Mill was also the second member of Parliament to call for women's suffrage after Henry Hunt in 1832.[5][6]

  1. ^ Thouverez, Emile. 1908. Stuart Mill (4th ed.) Paris: Bloud & Cie. p. 23.
  2. ^ Macleod, Christopher (14 November 2017). "John Stuart Mill". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Archived from the original on 6 March 2024.
  3. ^ "John Stuart Mill's On Liberty". victorianweb. 6 November 2000. Retrieved 23 July 2009. On Liberty is a rational justification of the freedom of the individual in opposition to the claims of the state to impose unlimited control and is thus a defence of the rights of the individual against the state.
  4. ^ Macleod, Christopher. "John Stuart Mill". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Archived from the original on 30 May 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2009.
  5. ^ "Orator Hunt and the first suffrage petition 1832". UK Parliament.
  6. ^ "John Stuart Mill and the 1866 petition". UK Parliament.

Developed by StudentB