When was he born and when did he die
1806-1873
Who was he the son of
James Mill
What was his father like
His father was keen on him being able to excel academically and he was very oppressive about it
What were some of the achievements of his early life
- By the age of 3, he knew Greek and Latin
- By the age of 6, he had already read multiple books by Plato in Greek (Plato’s dialogues)
- At 12 he was made to study logic and algebra
- at 13 he studied economics
What were the two major influences of his life
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
John Austin (1750-1859)
His father met Bentham when John was only 2 years old
What was it that Bentham taught
- Bentham taught that society should be run on rational and scientific moral principles. This was called ‘Utilitarianism’
- Utilitarianism meant that if laws and moralities did not give the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest amount of people, then it should be abolished or revised
What were some of the struggles of his childhood
He didn’t have any friends as he spent the whole of his childhood studying and he never played cricket. However, he loved reading and writing and studying so at the time, he did not miss friendships
Why couldn’t he go to Oxford or Cambridge
His father was a non-conformist and the two universities required its students to be members of the Church of England
What did he do as a young man
- A family friend and a professor of law almost persuaded him to study law
- in 1823 he took a job at the East India Company as it was well payed and gave him time to read and write
- He also joined Bentham’s Utilitarianism movement aka. he became a ‘Benthamite’
What happened in 1826
John Stuart Mill found out that Utilitarianism wasn’t worth fighting for and fell into a depression
Why did he adapt his ideas of Utilitarianism
- After reading poetry from Wordsworth, talking about how the beauty of nature makes humans more compassionate towards each other
- He adapted his way of thinking and formed his own type of Utilitarianism in which society encourages the ‘higher pleasures’ such as music, art, poetry and philosophy. He said that without these, society would be greatly diminished
What was his book ‘On Liberty’
- In this book (1859) he talks about how society cannot be happy unless it is free to make its own decisions
- Without freedom of speech and expression society cannot be fulfilled and and happy
What was ‘Subjection of Women’ about
- It was published in 1869
- He argued that men and women should obviously have the same rights, access to education, opportunity to vote and opportunities in the workplace.
- He was also very against slavery of all kind
Who taught John Stuart Mill about women’s rights
Harriet Taylor - who was her husband for 7 years and close friend for 20 before dying in 1858 - was the person who inspired him about women’s rights and encouraged both books to be written
How as John Stuart Mill able to bring out some of his social reforms
- In 1865, he was elected to become a Member of Parliament and was there for 3 years
- He was able to speak out about women’s rights and Utilitarianism
