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Book No. – 4 (Political Science)
Book Name – Western Political Thought (Shefali Jha)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. AN EQUAL FREEDOM FOR WOMEN
2. THE IMPORTANCE OF INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY
3. REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT
4. BEYOND UTILITARIANISM
5. FAULT LINES
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John Stuart Mill (1806–1873): The Benefits of the Liberty of Men and Women for Society
Chapter – 10
Table of Contents
- John Stuart Mill was born in 1806 in London as the oldest son of James Mill, a Scottish historian and philosopher.
- Mill’s education was supervised by his father and Jeremy Bentham, with a pedagogic diet beyond his years.
- Mill began learning Greek at three, Latin at eight, and by his teens, had read Plato’s dialogues, studied logic, mathematics, and political economy of Smith and Ricardo.
- Mill did not attend a regular school or university but was heavily tutored at home.
- While still in his teens, Mill contributed articles to the Westminster Review, the journal of the Philosophic Radicals.
- Mill became editor of the London and Westminster Review, a journal of the Philosophic Radicals, well-versed in their utilitarian principles.
- At age 20, Mill experienced a nervous breakdown and deep depression (lasting almost two years), which he later attributed to his father’s and Bentham’s pedagogic principles.
- Mill overcame his depression by reading English Romantic poetry.
- In 1827, Mill began working for the British East India Company, continuing for three decades, during which he wrote many of his famous works.
- From 1865 to 1868, Mill served as a Member of Parliament, advocating for women’s suffrage and worker’s rights.
- Mill was also the Lord Rector of University of Saint Andrews (Scotland) during this period.
- Mill married Harriet Taylor in 1851, after being in love with her for nearly 20 years. She passed away in 1858 shortly after their marriage.
- Mill acknowledged Taylor’s influence on his writings in several places.
- Mill was a prolific writer, producing work in multiple disciplines.
- A System of Logic (1843)
- Principles of Political Economy (1848)
- On Liberty (1859)
- Considerations on Representative Government (1861)
- Utilitarianism (1863)
- The Subjection of Women (1869)
- Autobiography and Three Essays on Religion (posthumously in 1873 and 1874)
- Mill’s work spanned methodological issues, moral and political philosophy, and political economy.
- Mill’s ideas significantly influenced 19th-century intellectuals in England and continue to resonate in contemporary philosophical debates on liberty and equal rights.