John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was a highly influential English philosopher of the Victorian Era. His writings were influenced by the Enlightenment thinkers and German Romanticism. Besides philosophical works, he wrote on mathematics, language, and logic. Well ahead of his time, he advocated the abolition of slavery and was a proponent of both children's and women's rights. However, he is best remembered for his essays on utilitarianism, a philosophy developed by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832).
Life
Born on 20 May 1806 in London, England, John Stuart Mill was the son of the Scottish radical thinker James Mill. James had moved to London to promote Bentham's utilitarian philosophy. Through his father's use of the Socratic method, John was educated by James in the psychological and educational principles of utilitarianism. He was schooled in law, psychology, economics, mathematics, and logic. James Strangroom in his The Great Philosophers wrote that Mill's father's aim was to turn him into a calculation machine. Some believe James accomplished his goal. At the age of three, he read Greek, and at age eight, Latin. By the time he was 14, he had read most of the classic Greek and Latin texts in their original languages. Later, while still in his teens, he edited many of Bentham's unpublished manuscripts.
Like his father, at age 17, he began to rise through the ranks of the British East India Company, remaining there until it closed in 1858. He suffered a nervous breakdown when he was 20. Many believe his repeated bouts of depression were a reaction to the impersonal disciplined teaching of his father and the overwhelming domination that his father imposed on everything in his life. In his The Great Philosophers, Jeremy Strongroom wrote that Mill had been prepared for argumentation and analysis but received no training to help him cope with emotional moods. Luckily, his newfound interest in culture, theater, and the works of English poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) helped him escape his depression.
In 1852, he married a long-time friend, Harriet Taylor, two years after the death of her first husband. She proved to have a significant influence on Mill as his foremost consultant and critic. She died in 1858. Seven years later, he became a member of Parliament (1865-1868) serving only one term. Mill died on 8 May 1873 in Avignon, France. Among his major works are A System of Logic (1853), On Liberty (1859), and The Subjection of Women (1869).
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