John Stuart Mill

Who is John Stuart Mill?

John Stuart Mill was born on May 20, 1806, in London, England. He was mostly known for his radical views. For example, he preached sexual equality, divorce, universal suffrage, free speech, and proportional representation. He had many works of writings such as Principles of Political Economy, On Liberty, The Subjections of Women, and the Three Essays of Religion: Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism.

John Mill was the eldest son of James Mill who was a philosopher, economist and a senior official in the East India Company. James educated John when he was young. His father taught him discipline, Greek at the age of three, history, languages, calculus, logic, political economy, geography, psychology, and rhetoric. At the age of twelve he was a competent logician and by the age of sixteen a well trained economist. (http://www.utilitarianism.com/jsmill.htm) His father believed that teaching children while they were young would have an ever lasting effect on them. The purpose of this push of education at a young age is because James thought that teaching John would have the chance of becoming a prophet of the utilitarian gospel. John had to eventually take his learning from his father and teach his eight younger brother and sisters the same material.

Around the age of sixteen, John created a Utilitarian Society, which had the goal of bringing happiness to the greatest number of people, where he was one of a "small knot of young men" who practiced his father's political and philosophical views. (http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/m/milljs.htm) At the age of twenty-one he suffered a mental breakdown, which resulted from severe strain from his earlier years. In his own autobiography, which was later published after his death, he wrote, that he was in a "dull state of nerves"; and that he had lost his charm. He said he had "no delight in virtue, or the general good, but also just as little in anything else." After several months he realized that his emotions where not dried up and "the cloud gradually drew off." In 1823 John took a clerkship position in the Examiner's Office at the East India Company. Later he eventually headed that department. Harriet Taylor who was a close friend with John co-wrote several pieces of work with him. They met in 1830 and she was the mother of three children. Sharing this intimate relationship and not being able to pursue it because Harriet was married, led to the view of the legal right to divorce shared by both of them. They eventually married in 1851, when her husband died.

During John's lifetime one of his most controversial works was On Liberty. It was an essay on the feelings he and his wife had, "that they lived in a society where bold and adventurous individuals were becoming all too rare." (http://www.utilitarianism.com/jsmill.htm) Many critics believed that Mill was way ahead of his time not just in human rights, but in other many other ways. The Subjection of Women, which was considered crazy during his time, today is considered just another feminist approach. Many would compare this essay too Marry Wollstonecraft's book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. He writes in this essay that men should treat women just as they would treat another man. Another of his famous works is his writing of System of Logic. In this work he describes his new idea of "the logic of consistency." (http://www.utilitarianism.com/jsmill.htm) He thought that we could prove the conclusion we drew from evidence. Principles of Political Economy, written in 1848, tried to show that economics was not just "dismal science." He wanted to prove the difference between economics and what humans really valued in the economy.

He eventually retired from the East India Company in 1858, which is when the British government took over. Elected Member of the Parliament for Westminster in 1865, he made several speeches on politics and women's voting rights. He only served this position for one year. After his term he spent the rest of his life in Avignon, France, where he died in 1873.

One of John Stuart Mills's most famous pieces of writing is "The Subjection of Women." In the two chapters that are accompanied in The Longman Anthology, you can only get a brief example of this work. In this work he states the men should give women the same quality as the treat another white man. The issue of slavery is stated to compare how men treat inferior sexes. "Did not the slave-owners of the Southern United States maintain the same doctrine, with all the fanaticism with which men cling to the theories that justify their passions and legitimate their personal interests?" (The Longman Anthology, pg. 522) He also stated that should he bring back the theory of Aristotle of which man has rule of slaves and women. He contradicts himself to this nature. Later he stated, "But, it will be said, the rule of men over women differs from all these others in not being a rule of force: it is accepted voluntarily; women make no complaint, and are consenting parties to it." (The Longman Anthology, pg. 523) Women from the beginning didn't accept the fact that men were so called masters to there race. The only way they could express there feelings legally is threw their writings and publications. Parliamentary Suffrage was an issue that thousands of women brought before Parliament. This issue was brought to the house in 1866 with John Mills the first member of the Parliament to advocate women's suffrage. Stating later in Chapter One of The Subjection of Women, he gives an example that men don't want women as slaves, but they want to feel connected to women. "The masters of women wanted more than simple obedience, and they turned the whole force of education to affect their purpose." (The Longman Anthology, pg. 523) Women were brought up to look up to men and to know that they are inferior in both physical and mental aspects. "When we put together three things-first, the natural attraction between opposite sexes; secondly, the wife's entire dependence on the husband, every privilege or pleasure she has being either his gift, or depending entirely on his will; and lastly, that the principal object of human pursuit, consideration, and all objects of social ambition, can in general be sought or obtained by her only through him-it would be a miracle if the object of being attractive

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