John Stuart Mill

Born: 1806

Died: 1873, at the age of 66

Country of origin: England

• Areas of focus:       Ethics, Economics, Logic
  
  
• Some of John Stuart Mill's influences:
  
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• Major Books written by John Stuart Mill:
  
  
  • "A System of Logic" (1843)
    
  • "Principles of Political Economy" (1848)
    
  • "On Liberty" (1859)
    
  • "Utilitarianism" (1861)
    
  • "Considerations on Representative Government" (1861)
    
  • "The Subjection of Women" (1869)
    
  
  
• Cocktail summary of John Stuart Mill's main ideas:
  
  
  John Stuart Mill was the the official Smart Guy of the English Victorian era. He was famous for being brilliant from a young age, for being a whiz in mathematics and Logic, for his contributions to the field of Economics, and for his Liberal politics as a member of England's Parliament. But his most lasting influence was in the field of Ethics, also known as Moral Philosophy. Mill was the 19th Century's standard-bearer for the Ethical cause known as "Utilitarianism".
  
  Utilitarianism is generally defined as follows: "The utility of any value is defined by it's ability to achieve the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people". Mill inherited this cause from his mentor Jeremy Bentham, who called it simply "The greatest good for the greatest number". Mill took this approach to ethics and worked to apply it to economic theory and public policy, arguing that the purpose of any democratic government or market-driven economy was simply to remove barriers to the efforts of its citizens to achieve happiness.
  
  Mill's position on ethics is layed out in his essay "Utilitarianism", which was originally published as a series of magazine articles, then later published in book form, which Mill continually edited and revised as it was regularly re-published. Sticking true to the traditional English approach to Philosophy as an Empirical discipline - knowledge gained from experience - as opposed to most European Philosophy which has usually been Rational - knowledge gained by pure ideas - Mill argued that Ethics should be based on the evidence of experience rather than on inherited beliefs or theories.
  
  He called the goal of his Ethical discipline by the same name as his mentor, Jeremy Bentham, had: the "Greatest Happiness Principle", and defined it in both intellectual and sensual terms. Intellectual assurance and a sense of peace, plus physical needs and sensual pleasure being met, are the primary goals of this principle, and Mill argued that these are the ends that all Ethical arguments should try to achieve.
  
  In addition to Ethics, Mill also contributed to the field of Logic, primarily in working out the specifics of Induction. Mill was less interested in the theory of Logic than he was in the methodology of Scientific discovery. He basically echoed the dictates of Francis Bacon, in spelling out how general propositions are made as a result of specific discoveries.
  
  Mill argued that the rules of induction could be used to give precise answers to questions of social and moral problems, as well as to details of economic issues, such as the the proper relationship between earnings and wages, and questions of wealth-distribution in society.
  
  In his later years, Mill was elected to British Parliament and was a champion of many Liberal agendas, such as Women's Suffrage and efforts to suppress the efforts at economic monopolies and worker exploitation in Jamaica, a cause he largely failed at.
  
  
• John Stuart Mill praised & criticized:
  
  
  • JS Mill is often praised for his Liberalism in terms of politics and Economics, as well as being congratulated for being so smart. But his approach to Ethics has taken a lot of criticism in the past century, due to the difficulty in universally defining Happiness, and how to actually measure Happiness as a metric.
    
    One of the problems with this noble-sounding goal is that different people gain happiness from different sources. For instance, one culture might gain happiness from materialism while another culture might gain happiness by trying to spread its religion around the world through violent means. An altruistic person gains happiness via good deeds, whereas a sadist gains happiness via inflicting pain. Some will argue that happiness is best achieved through back-breaking manual labor instead of through self-serving hedonism, even though pain becomes the path towards Happiness. Then how do you exactly measure Happiness in an objective way? The inability to create a universal definition of happiness that can be generally applied has caused Mill's Utilitarianism to appear a bit naive to many.
    
    
• Notable Facts about John Stuart Mill:
  
  
  • Religious affiliation:
    JS Mill applied his Utilitarian approach to questions of religion, arguing that the true value of Religion lay not in specific doctrine or statements, but in religion's healthy endorsement of Morality. Religion was useful, he argued, even if it was false. He was essentially Agnostic regarding the specifics of any religious questions about the existence of God, and he was suspicious of any and all kinds of metaphysical ponderings, since he considered such questions of little practical use. He was considered by many to be an Atheist: an Atheist with a good heart perhaps, but an Atheist none-the-less.
    
    In arguing for the positive role of "false" religion he once wrote, "The whole domain of the supernatural is thus removed from the region of Belief into that of simple Hope". Anything that produced altruism, hopeful optimism, and useful actions was to be encouraged. He was totally uninterested in the specifics of religion, just it's useful outcome. If someone wanted to follow the stories of Mother Goose as their religion, and did good deeds as a result, then Mill would happily endorse that religion as good.
    
    
  • Mill was raised in a very unique context. He was basically home-schooled by his father, the philosopher James Mill, a Scotsman who was part of a group of radical philosophers who worked to spread the teachings of the Utilitarian Philosopher Jeremy Bentham throughout England. Bentham was John Stuart Mill's Godfather. (John Stuart Mill later was, in turn, Godfather to the Philosopher Bertrand Russell) JS Mill's father forbade him any contact with other boys his age, and tutored him in an intense barrage of History, Philosophy, Mathematics, and Languages. He supposedly started studying Greek at the age of 3, and Latin only a few years later. Insulated as he was from other children, he was reading all the classics while his peers were outside playing Cricket, which served to let Mill exceed academically far beyond his peers but also caused him to be socially awkward as a young adult. Although, after a bout of depression in his early 20's, he developed his own social skills and left his awkwardness behind.
    
    
  • He spent most of his life working in the East India Company, rising through the corporate ranks. He studied Logic and its applications to Ethics and Economy, and published in his spare time.
    
    
  • Mill got married late in life, at age 45, to a woman named Harriet Taylor. They had been intimate friends for 21 years, while she was married. When her husband died, she and Mill were married, in 1851. She died 7 years later, and Mill never re-married. They had no children.
    
    
• Quotes:
  
  
  • "Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends".
    
    
  • "Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain".
    
    
  • "The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure".
    
    
  • "Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative".
    
    
  • "One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests".
    
    
  • "Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so".
    
    
  • "I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them".
    
    
  • "The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant".
    
    
  • "Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness: on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming at something else, they find happiness by the way".
    
    
  • "Conversancy with Hegel tends to deprave one's intellect".
    
    
  • "Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character had abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and courage which it contained".
    
    
  • "The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind".
    
    
  • "Whatever crushes individuality is despotism".
    
    
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