Читать книгу Briefly: Mills' On Liberty - David Mills Daniel - Страница 7

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Who was John Stuart Mill?

John Stuart Mill was born in London in 1806, and was the son of James Mill, the utilitarian philosopher and friend of Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism. The education that Mill received from his father, and which he describes in his Autobiography, was unusually ambitious. He started Greek and Latin when he was a few years old, lacked friends of his own age, and did not take part in sport; and this intense programme may have contributed to the severe depression he suffered when he was about 20. In 1823, Mill joined the East India Company, which at that time governed India, where he worked until the British government took over responsibility for India in 1858. During this time, Mill was developing, and writing about, his views on philosophical and political issues, and working out his own version of utilitarianism. On Liberty (1859), Utilitarianism (1861), Considerations on Representative Government (1861) and The Subjection of Women (1869) have had a major and continuing influence on moral and political philosophy, as well as on thinking about the rights of individuals and minorities, and the relationship between the individual and the state. Mill married Mrs Harriet Taylor, whom he had known for more than 20 years, in 1851, and was Liberal MP for Westminster between 1865 and 1868. He died in France in 1873.