John Stuart Mill

Utilitarian

ED 530 Theorist PresentationSummer Semester 2010

Julia Vogl

Background

Image Source

• Born May 20,1806 in London, England

• Parents: James and Harriet Burrow Mill

• John Stuart Mill never attended a school or university. His education was managed by his father. By the age of 12, John had learned material taught in universities.

• 1823- Cofounded the Utilitarian Society with Jeremy Bentham

• 1826-Cofounded London University with Bentham

• 1826-Mental Crisis- John feared that all of his “intellectual training” had left him without real emotion

Background

• From 1828 to1856, Mill was an assistant examiner in India House-Beginning 1836, he managed “the East India Company's relations with the Indian states”.

• 1840s- Published A System of Logic (2 vol., 1843) and Principles of Political Economy (2 vol., 1848)

• 1851- John Stuart Mill married Harriet Taylor. This was her second marriage.

• 1858- Harriet died

• 1865- Won election to the House of Commons, despite the fact that he didn’t campaign

• Died May 8, 1873

Image Source

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism states that the basic moral principle is that we should do whatever provides the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people.

Mill believed that happiness equaled pleasure and the absence of pain. However, pleasure of the mind was more important than pleasure of the body.

Mill was involved in many political causes. He believed that people should be treated equally and that no one person should have control over another. This belief caused Mill to become involved in the fight for women’s rights. John Stuart Mill wrote The Subjection of Women, which was published in 1869.

System of Logic

• Began with a study of words that constitute statements– Distinguished between the connotation and detonation of words– Described propositions as “"verbal" and analytic or "real" and synthetic.”

• Next, Mill began the study of pure mathematics and deductive reasoning.– Knowledge had to come from experience, not universal principles or

intuitions– In conclusion, Mill equated pure to applied mathematics and deductive

reasoning to inferences –which were in fact, generalizations from previous experience

• According to Mill, logic was knowledge by inference

-- He believed that one gained knowledge through observation

-- Causal laws are established through the variation of the relations between A as the cause of B

-- Therefore, we can use these methods to identify other empirical and scientific laws that cannot actually be seen.

Timeline of Mill’s Life

Image Source

Quotes by: John Stuart Mill

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.” John Stuart Mill

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.”John Stuart Mill

Image Source

More Works by John Stuart Mill

• "Two Letters on the Measure of Value", 1822, The Traveller

• "Questions of Population", 1823, Black Dwarf• "War Expenditure", 1824, Westminster Review• "Quarterly Review -- Political Economy", 1825,

Westminster Review• "Review of Miss Martineau's Tales", 1830, Examiner• "The Spirit of the Age", 1831, Examiner• "What is Poetry", 1833, 1859• "Essay on Bentham" 1838• "Essay on Coleridge" 1840• A System of Logic, 1843• Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Eco

nomy, 1844

• "Claims of Labour", 1845, Edinburgh Review• The Principles of Political Economy: with some of thei

r applications to social philosophy, 1848

• "The Negro Question", 1850, Fraser's Magazine• Dissertations and Discussions, 1859.• A Few Words on Non-intervention, 1859• On Liberty, 1859

• Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform, 1859.• Considerations on Representative Government, 1861• "Centralisation", 1862, Edinburgh Review• "The Contest in America", 1862, Harper's Magazine• Utilitarianism, 1863• An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy,

1865.• Auguste Comte and Positivism, 1865.• Inaugural Address at St. Andrews - Rectorial Inaugural

Address at the University of St. Andrews, concerning the value of culture, 1867.

• "Speech In Favor of Capital Punishment", 1868 [22][23]

• England and Ireland, 1868.• "Thornton on Labor and its Claims", 1869, Fortnightly

Review• The Subjection of Women, 1869• Chapters and Speeches on the Irish Land Question,

1870• On Nature, 1874• Autobiography of John Stuart Mill, 1873• Three Essays on Religion, 1874• "Notes on N.W. Senior's Political Economy", 1945,

Economica

References

The Forum at The Online Library of Liberty. Timeline: The Life of John Stuart Mill. Retrieved May 29, 2010

http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1005&Itemid=273

Mill, John Stuart (1843) A System of Logic. Squashed version edited by Glyn Hughes (2009).

http://www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes/squashed/milllogic.htm

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. “John Stuart Mill”. (2002; revision 2007).

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill/

Answers.com. “John Stuart Mill”. (2010)

http://www.answers.com/topic/john-stuart-mill

Brainy Quote. (2010) Retrieved May 29, 2010.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_stuart_mill_3.html

Kemerling, Garth (1999-2002) Philosophy Pages: Utilitarianism.

http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/5q.htm