John Stuart Mill author photo

John Stuart Mill

Né(e): May 20, 1806 – Pentonville, Middlesex, England

John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist, and political theorist whose work focused on liberty, utilitarianism, representative government, and women’s rights. His most notable books include On Liberty, Utilitarianism, and The Subjection of Women. He remains one of the nineteenth century’s most influential liberal thinkers in philosophy and political economy.

Biographie et Parcours de l'Auteur

John Stuart Mill was born in London on May 20, 1806, into an unusually rigorous intellectual environment. He was the eldest son of the historian and philosopher James Mill, who supervised an education designed to form him into a formidable thinker from early childhood. Mill learned Greek and Latin at an age when most children were just beginning formal schooling, and he was introduced early to logic, political economy, and history. This accelerated training gave him extraordinary range, but it also imposed severe psychological pressure. In his early twenties he suffered a well-known mental crisis, later describing a collapse in feeling and purpose that became one of the decisive turning points of his life. Recovery led him away from a narrowly mechanical version of Benthamite utilitarianism and toward a broader view of human flourishing, emotion, individuality, and moral development.

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Citations

quote
Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign
-On Liberty
quote
He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that
-On Liberty
quote
The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it
-On Liberty
quote
Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness
-Utilitarianism
quote
It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied
-Utilitarianism
quote
Those only are happy (I thought) 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
-Autobiography
quote
What is now called the nature of women is an eminently artificial thing—the result of forced repression in some directions, unnatural stimulation in others
-The Subjection of Women
quote
The power of earning is essential to the dignity of a woman, if she has not independent property
-The Subjection of Women

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Voix de la Communauté

"John Stuart Mill was an English philosopher, economist, and exponent of utilitarianism"

Britannica

"John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was a highly influential English philosopher of the Victorian Era"

World History Encyclopedia

"It is not easy to assess the importance of John Stuart Mill in nineteenth-century England"

Bertrand Russell

"John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) profoundly influenced the shape of nineteenth century British thought and political discourse"

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

"John Stuart Mill is the critical transitional figure between the classical liberalism of the 19th century ... and the welfare-state liberalism of the 20th century"

Alan Charles Kors

"John Stuart Mill ... was a British philosopher, economist, and moral and political theorist"

Biography.com

"John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was the most famous and influential British philosopher of the nineteenth century"

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

"John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was the most influential British philosopher of the nineteenth century"

Nicholas Capaldi

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