{"id":439,"date":"2017-06-21T21:35:47","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T21:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/elpaso-introphilosophy\/?post_type=chapter&p=439"},"modified":"2017-06-21T21:35:47","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T21:35:47","slug":"john-stuart-mill","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/elpaso-introphilosophy\/chapter\/john-stuart-mill\/","title":{"raw":"John Stuart Mill","rendered":"John Stuart Mill"},"content":{"raw":"
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John Stuart Mill\r\n(1806-1873<\/a>)<\/h2>\r\n<\/dt>\r\n \t
The son of James Mill<\/a>, a friend and follower of Jeremy Bentham<\/a>, John Stuart Mill was subjected to a rigorous education at home: he mastered English and the classical languages as a child, studied logic and philosophy extensively, read the law with John Austin<\/a>, and then embarked on a thirty-five career with the British East India Company at the age of seventeen. (He also suffered through a severe bout of depression before turning twenty-one.) Despite such a rich background, Mill credited the bulk of his intellectual and personal development to his long and intimate association with Harriet Hardy Taylor<\/a>. They were devoted friends for two decades before the death of her husband made it possible for them to marry in 1852; she died in Avignon six years later. Mill continued to write and to participate in political affairs, serving one term in Parliament (1865-68). The best source of information about Mill's life is his own Autobiography<\/cite><\/a> (1873).\"Mill\"\r\n\r\nPhilosophically, Mill was a radical empiricist<\/a> who held that all human knowledge, including even mathematics and logic, is derived by generalization from sensory experience. In A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive<\/a><\/cite> (1843) he explained in great detail the canons for reasoning inductively<\/a> to conclusions about the causal connections exhibited in the natural world.\r\n\r\nMill's moral philosophy was a modified version of the utilitarian theory<\/a> he had learned from his father and Bentham. In the polemical Utilitarianism<\/cite><\/a> (1861) Mill developed a systematic statement of utilitarian ethical theory.<\/a> He modified and defended the general principle that right actions are those that tend to produce thegreatest happiness of the greatest number<\/a> of people, being careful to include a distinction in the quality of the pleasures that constitute happiness<\/a>. There Mill also attempted a proof of the principle of utility, explained its enforcement, and discussed its relation to a principle of justice.\"Mill\"\r\n\r\nMill's greatest contribution to political theory occurs in On Liberty<\/cite><\/a> (1859), where he defended the broadest possible freedom of thought and expression<\/a> and argued that the state can justify interference with the conduct of individual citizens only when it is clear that doing so will prevent a greater harm to others. Mill also addressed matters of social concern in Principles of Political Economy<\/cite><\/a> (1848) and Considerations on Representative Government<\/cite><\/a> (1861) and eloquently supported the cause of women's rights<\/a> in The Subjection of Women<\/cite><\/a> (1869).<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>","rendered":"
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The son of James Mill<\/a>, a friend and follower of Jeremy Bentham<\/a>, John Stuart Mill was subjected to a rigorous education at home: he mastered English and the classical languages as a child, studied logic and philosophy extensively, read the law with John Austin<\/a>, and then embarked on a thirty-five career with the British East India Company at the age of seventeen. (He also suffered through a severe bout of depression before turning twenty-one.) Despite such a rich background, Mill credited the bulk of his intellectual and personal development to his long and intimate association with Harriet Hardy Taylor<\/a>. They were devoted friends for two decades before the death of her husband made it possible for them to marry in 1852; she died in Avignon six years later. Mill continued to write and to participate in political affairs, serving one term in Parliament (1865-68). The best source of information about Mill’s life is his own Autobiography<\/cite><\/a> (1873).\"Mill\"<\/p>\n

Philosophically, Mill was a radical empiricist<\/a> who held that all human knowledge, including even mathematics and logic, is derived by generalization from sensory experience. In A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive<\/a><\/cite> (1843) he explained in great detail the canons for reasoning inductively<\/a> to conclusions about the causal connections exhibited in the natural world.<\/p>\n

Mill’s moral philosophy was a modified version of the utilitarian theory<\/a> he had learned from his father and Bentham. In the polemical Utilitarianism<\/cite><\/a> (1861) Mill developed a systematic statement of utilitarian ethical theory.<\/a> He modified and defended the general principle that right actions are those that tend to produce thegreatest happiness of the greatest number<\/a> of people, being careful to include a distinction in the quality of the pleasures that constitute happiness<\/a>. There Mill also attempted a proof of the principle of utility, explained its enforcement, and discussed its relation to a principle of justice.\"Mill\"<\/p>\n

Mill’s greatest contribution to political theory occurs in On Liberty<\/cite><\/a> (1859), where he defended the broadest possible freedom of thought and expression<\/a> and argued that the state can justify interference with the conduct of individual citizens only when it is clear that doing so will prevent a greater harm to others. Mill also addressed matters of social concern in Principles of Political Economy<\/cite><\/a> (1848) and Considerations on Representative Government<\/cite><\/a> (1861) and eloquently supported the cause of women’s rights<\/a> in The Subjection of Women<\/cite><\/a> (1869).<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n\n\t\t\t

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Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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