John Stuart Mill
For Mill, people should be free to do anything that does not harm others – and the best actions increase happiness, with higher pleasures counting more.
Placement
Refined utilitarianism and defended individual liberty with the harm principle.
Key ideas
- Harm principle
- Qualitative pleasures
- Equal rights
Teachers: Jeremy Bentham
Influence
Influenced by 5
Plato
influenced by
Mill translated several of Plato’s dialogues (1834–35) and called the Socratic method of the dialogues unsurpassed as a discipline for correcting errors (Autobiography, 1873). J. S. Mill, Autobiography (1873), ch. 1; translations of Platonic dialogues in the Monthly Repository (1834–35)
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Plato › 428–348 BCE
Jeremy Bentham studied with
studied with ✓
Mill was taught by his father James Mill, not by Bentham, but grew up in Bentham’s circle; he called his reading of Bentham’s Traités de législation (ed. Dumont) in 1821–22 an epoch in his life and in 1825–27 edited Bentham’s Rationale of Judicial Evidence. A mentorship rather than formal teaching. J. S. Mill, Autobiography (1873), chs. 3–4
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Jeremy Bentham › 1748–1832
Auguste Comte
influenced by
Mill took up Comte’s positive method and law of three stages in A System of Logic (1843); Auguste Comte and Positivism (1865) rejected the later system as despotic. J. S. Mill, A System of Logic (1843); Auguste Comte and Positivism (1865); SEP “John Stuart Mill”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Auguste Comte › 1798–1857
Alexis de Tocqueville
influenced by
Mill reviewed both volumes of Democracy in America (1835, 1840) and took up Tocqueville’s ‘tyranny of the majority’ in On Liberty (1859). J. S. Mill, reviews of De la démocratie en Amérique, London and Westminster Review (1835), Edinburgh Review (1840); On Liberty (1859); SEP “John Stuart Mill”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Alexis de Tocqueville › 1805–1859
Harriet Taylor Mill influenced
influenced by
Mill’s Autobiography (1873) calls Taylor Mill co-author of On Liberty (1859) and source of the social ideas of the Political Economy; the extent of her share is disputed. J. S. Mill, Autobiography (1873); On Liberty (1859); Principles of Political Economy (1848); SEP “Harriet Taylor Mill”
Evidence: AI draft
influenced
From 1830 Taylor Mill worked out her views in exchange with Mill, beginning with their essays on marriage and divorce (c. 1832); her ‘Enfranchisement of Women’ followed (1851). J. S. Mill and H. Taylor, essays on marriage and divorce (c. 1832), in F. A. Hayek, John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor (1951); H. Taylor Mill, “Enfranchisement of Women”, Westminster Review (1851); SEP “Harriet Taylor Mill”
Evidence: AI draft
Harriet Taylor Mill › 1807–1858
Influenced 13
Henry Sidgwick
influenced
In the autobiographical preface to The Methods of Ethics (6th ed., 1901) Sidgwick recalled how Mill’s utilitarianism relieved him of arbitrary moral rules, though he doubted Mill’s proof. H. Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics (6th ed., 1901), preface; SEP “Henry Sidgwick”
Evidence: AI draft
Henry Sidgwick › 1838–1900
William James
influenced
James dedicated Pragmatism (1907) to the memory of Mill, from whom he had ‘first learned the pragmatic openness of mind’. W. James, Pragmatism (1907), dedication; SEP “William James”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
William James › 1842–1910
Bertrand Russell
influenced ✓
Russell, Mill’s lay godson, gave up the first-cause argument on reading Mill’s Autobiography, as he recalled in 1927, and honoured him in a British Academy lecture (1955). B. Russell, “Why I Am Not a Christian” (1927); “John Stuart Mill”, Proceedings of the British Academy 41 (1955); J. S. Mill, Autobiography (1873); SEP “Bertrand Russell”
Bertrand Russell › 1872–1970
Isaiah Berlin
influenced
Berlin read Mill as a defender of negative liberty and human diversity whose liberalism went beyond his utilitarianism (‘John Stuart Mill and the Ends of Life’, 1959). I. Berlin, “John Stuart Mill and the Ends of Life” (1959), in Four Essays on Liberty (1969)
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Isaiah Berlin › 1909–1997
Paul Feyerabend
influenced
Feyerabend grounded his principle of proliferation – develop rival theories to test accepted ones – in Mill’s defence of free discussion in On Liberty (Against Method, 1975). P. K. Feyerabend, Against Method (1975); J. S. Mill, On Liberty (1859); SEP “Paul Feyerabend”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Paul Feyerabend › 1924–1994
Peter Singer
influenced
Singer took up the classical utilitarianism of Bentham, Mill and Sidgwick, judging actions by their consequences for the interests of all affected (Practical Ethics, 1979). P. Singer, Practical Ethics (1979); J. S. Mill, Utilitarianism (1861/63); SEP “John Stuart Mill”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Peter Singer › b. 1946
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Georg Brandes
influenced
Brandes translated Mill’s The Subjection of Women into Danish (1869), met him in London in 1870, and drew on his liberalism in Main Currents of Nineteenth-Century Literature (1872–90). J. S. Mill, Kvindernes Underkuelse, tr. G. Brandes (1869); G. Brandes, Hovedstrømninger i det 19de Aarhundredes Litteratur (1872–90)
Evidence: AI draft
Georg Brandes › 1842–1927
Harald Høffding
influenced
Høffding’s Ethics (1887) made the welfare of all the measure of morality, after Bentham and Mill, and ‘Democratic Radicalism’ (1889) defended it against Brandes. H. Høffding, Etik (1887); “Demokratisk Radikalisme”, Tilskueren (1889)
Evidence: AI draft
Harald Høffding › 1843–1931
Yan Fu
influenced
Yan Fu translated Mill’s On Liberty (Qunji quanjie lun, 1903) and part of the System of Logic (1905); how faithfully he rendered Mill’s liberty is debated. Yan Fu, Qunji quanjie lun (1903); Mule mingxue (1905); B. Schwartz, In Search of Wealth and Power (1964); M. K. Huang, The Meaning of Freedom: Yan Fu and the Origins of Chinese Liberalism (2008)
Evidence: AI draft
Yan Fu › 1854–1921
R. M. Hare
influenced
Hare linked his two levels of moral thinking – intuitive everyday rules and critical utilitarian reasoning – to Mill’s secondary principles and first principle (Moral Thinking, 1981). R. M. Hare, Moral Thinking: Its Levels, Method, and Point (1981); J. S. Mill, Utilitarianism (1861/63); SEP “Richard Mervyn Hare”
Evidence: AI draft
R. M. Hare › 1919–2002
Carole Pateman
influenced
Pateman drew on Mill’s view that taking part in politics educates citizens for her theory of participatory democracy (Participation and Democratic Theory, 1970). C. Pateman, Participation and Democratic Theory (1970); J. S. Mill, Considerations on Representative Government (1861)
Evidence: AI draft
Carole Pateman › b. 1940
Kwame Anthony Appiah
influenced
Appiah opened The Ethics of Identity (2005) with Mill’s ideal of individuality from On Liberty and asked how it fits with social identities. K. A. Appiah, The Ethics of Identity (2005); J. S. Mill, On Liberty (1859)
Evidence: AI draft
Kwame Anthony Appiah › b. 1954
Elizabeth Anderson
influenced
Anderson read Mill’s ‘experiments in living’ as a model of how ethical knowledge is gained and revised through experience (‘John Stuart Mill and Experiments in Living’, 1991). E. Anderson, “John Stuart Mill and Experiments in Living”, Ethics 102 (1991); J. S. Mill, On Liberty (1859)
Evidence: AI draft
Elizabeth Anderson › b. 1959
Criticism
Criticized by 7
Wilhelm Dilthey
criticised by
Dilthey rejected the claim of Mill’s Logic (1843, Book VI) that the moral sciences must borrow the methods of the natural sciences, setting understanding (Verstehen) against explanation. W. Dilthey, Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften (1883), Preface; Ideen über eine beschreibende und zergliedernde Psychologie (1894); J. S. Mill, A System of Logic (1843), Book VI
Evidence: AI draft
Wilhelm Dilthey › 1833–1911
Gottlob Frege
criticised by
Frege rejected Mill’s view of numbers as properties of aggregates and of arithmetic as inductive, mocking it as an arithmetic of pebbles and gingerbread (Grundlagen der Arithmetik, 1884, §§ 7–11). G. Frege, Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik (1884), §§ 7–11, 23–25; J. S. Mill, A System of Logic (1843), book II, ch. 6
Evidence: AI draft
Gottlob Frege › 1848–1925
Edmund Husserl
criticised by
In the Prolegomena to the Logical Investigations (1900) Husserl rejected Mill’s psychologism, which treats the laws of logic, including non-contradiction, as empirical generalisations about thinking. E. Husserl, Logische Untersuchungen I: Prolegomena zur reinen Logik (1900), chs. 3–5; SEP “Psychologism”
Evidence: AI draft
Edmund Husserl › 1859–1938
G. E. Moore
criticised by
Moore charged Mill with the naturalistic fallacy for inferring ‘desirable’ from ‘desired’, as if ‘desirable’ meant ‘able to be desired’ like ‘visible’ (Principia Ethica, 1903, §§ 39–40). G. E. Moore, Principia Ethica (1903), ch. III, §§ 39–40; J. S. Mill, Utilitarianism (1861), ch. 4
Evidence: AI draft
G. E. Moore › 1873–1958
G. E. M. Anscombe
criticised by
Anscombe held that Mill, like Kant, ignores the need to stipulate which description of an act is relevant, so his principle lacks content (‘Modern Moral Philosophy’, 1958). G. E. M. Anscombe, “Modern Moral Philosophy”, Philosophy 33 (1958), 1–19
Evidence: AI draft
G. E. M. Anscombe › 1919–2001
John Rawls
criticised by
Rawls objected that Mill’s utilitarian defence of liberty makes liberties hostage to uncertain calculations; justice as fairness gives them priority (A Theory of Justice, 1971). J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice (1971), § 33; Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy (2007), lectures on Mill
Evidence: AI draft
John Rawls › 1921–2002
Bernard Williams
criticised by
Williams’s critique of utilitarianism, aimed chiefly at Smart, extends to Mill’s: it weighs lives impersonally and leaves no place for integrity (Utilitarianism: For and Against, 1973). B. Williams, “A Critique of Utilitarianism”, in J. J. C. Smart & B. Williams, Utilitarianism: For and Against (1973); Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (1985), chs. 5–6
Evidence: AI draft
Bernard Williams › 1929–2003
Criticizes 2
Aristotle
criticised
Mill dismissed Aristotle’s categories as ‘a mere catalogue’ of everyday distinctions and held that the syllogism, taken as proof, begs the question (A System of Logic, 1843). J. S. Mill, A System of Logic (1843), book I, ch. 3; book II, ch. 3
Evidence: AI draft
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
Immanuel Kant
criticised
Mill argued that when Kant derives actual duties from the categorical imperative he shows no contradiction, only consequences no one would choose (Utilitarianism, 1861, ch. 1). J. S. Mill, Utilitarianism (1861), ch. 1; ch. 5
Evidence: AI draft
Immanuel Kant › 1724–1804
Works
Inductive logic and the method of the sciences – logic as psychology.
- 1859On Liberty
The harm principle and the tyranny of the majority.
- 1863Utilitarianism
Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.
For complete legal equality between the sexes.
Position
Mill broadened Bentham’s utilitarianism: actions are right as they promote happiness, but pleasures differ in quality – “better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.” In On Liberty he formulated the harm principle: society may restrict an individual’s freedom only to prevent harm to others. He exempted “barbarians” and “backward states of society” from it: despotism, he wrote, is a legitimate mode of government for them, “provided the end be their improvement” – a view shaped by his decades of work for the East India Company. Freedom of thought and discussion, and the cultivation of individuality, are essential to human progress. In The Subjection of Women he argued for the full legal and social equality of women, and in Parliament for women’s suffrage. His System of Logic grounded scientific inference in experience. He is often counted the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century, and On Liberty became a classic of liberalism.
Life & context
Born in London in 1806, John Stuart Mill was rigorously educated by his father James Mill, learning Greek at three. A mental crisis at twenty taught him the value of feeling and poetry. He worked for the East India Company for 35 years, shared his intellectual life with the writer Harriet Taylor, whom he married in 1851 and whose share in his work he stressed, and served as a Member of Parliament. He died in Avignon in 1873.
Further main works
- Principles of Political Economy (1848)
Appears in
- Debate ‘Free Speech and Its Limits’
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