John Stuart Mill

(1806–73). British philosopher and political economist, born in London, the son of James Mill. He was brought up by his father to be a genius — which indeed he became — being taught Greek at the age of 3, Latin and arithmetic at 8, logic at 12, and political economy at 13. His only recreation was a daily walk with his father, and during this he was given oral examinations. Perhaps not surprisingly he suffered a severe mental crisis, but he recovered to become one of the outstanding intellects of his generation. In his System of Logic (1843) he provided, among other things, a systematic account of inductive reasoning (see induction, and, for Mill's predecessors on this matter, Aristotle and Bacon, Francis).

Mill also wrote extensively on political economy, and morals and ethics, developing his father's and Jeremy Bentham's utilitarianism. His essays on Representative Government and Utilitarianism both appeared in 1861. He disagrees with the earlier authors by admitting qualitative differences between pleasures, and so raising doubts as to whether pleasure can be equated with right action. In his On Liberty (1859) he provides a famous principle (the 'harm' principle) which severely limits the extent to which individuals may be coerced by government. He was an early supporter of liberal campaigns for women's suffrage, and his The Subjection of Women (1869) provoked antagonism at the time, but heralded justice and equality.

(Published 1987)

— Richard L. Gregory

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