United KingdomWho was John Stuart Mill?
John Stuart Mill was born in London and educated intensively by his father, James Mill, within Jeremy Bentham's reform circle. He worked for decades at the East India Company, eventually holding the same post as chief examiner that his father had held. His major works include A System of Logic (1843), Principles of Political Economy (1848), On Liberty (1859), Considerations on Representative Government (1861), Utilitarianism (1863) and The Subjection of Women (1869). He credited his wife Harriet Taylor Mill with shaping much of his thought. From 1865 to 1868 he sat in Parliament as a Liberal for Westminster.
Political views
Argued that the only legitimate reason for exercising power over an individual against their will is to prevent harm to others.
Source: gutenberg.orgDefended broad freedom of thought, speech and lifestyle, and warned against the tyranny of majority opinion and custom.
Source: plato.stanford.eduChampioned women's suffrage in the House of Commons and argued in The Subjection of Women for legal equality between the sexes.
Source: iep.utm.eduSupported proportional representation and plural voting weighted by education.
Source: plato.stanford.eduAccepted markets and private property but rejected pure laissez-faire, defending state responsibilities as a way of promoting the common good.
Source: plato.stanford.eduProposed limiting the amount any one person could acquire by gift or inheritance, and taxing large inheritances.
Source: gutenberg.orgRecommended industrial co-operatives owned by workers as a way to turn the workplace into a school of sympathy.
Source: plato.stanford.edu
Legacy
Mill is often regarded as the most influential English-language philosopher of the 19th century, and On Liberty remains a central text in debates on free speech and personal autonomy. Liberals, libertarians and social democrats all claim parts of his legacy, from the harm principle to his openness to cooperatives. Critics on the right have argued that his individualism undermines shared moral tradition, while others point to his defense of colonial rule in India and his proposal for plural voting as limits to his egalitarianism. Feminist scholars credit him and Harriet Taylor Mill as early advocates of women's rights.
In their words
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.