Roxas, Lorraine Monique M.

Sec.1
On this paper I will prove that John Stuart Mill is a modern political thinker by stating his facts
and evidence. First, I will start on his biography. After that, I will disseminate his political ideas
why I stated that he’s a modern political thinker. In conclusion, I will evaluate his ideas and how
is it connected to modernity.

Biography

This essay of John Stuart Mill is based on the biography of the New World Encyclopedia

John Stuart Mill is an English Philosopher, Political Economist and a 19th-century philosopher
known mainly for his philosophical theory of utilitarianism. He was born on 1806 in Pentoville,
London. His father is James Mill, a Scottish Philosopher, and a historian. He was trained
primarily by his father, a strict disciplinary officer, with the guidance of Bentham and Francis
Place. On his school he was required to read subject matter and his early age of ten he was able
to read Plato and Demosthenes. He also learned well with Algebra and other Foreign History two
years before he was fourteen. He studied Political economy, Logic and Calculus when he was
only on his pre-adolescent years. The life of Mill or his intellectual environment contributed to
his more developing passion in studying different subjects. When he was already at the age of
fifteen, he pursues his interest in Philosophy and other fields such as Psychology and
government by developing treatises. His childhood was not miserable, but he suffers from a lack
of natural, unenforceable growth, and his mental health and state of mind were affected. Mill
spent his time in the year 1820 to 1821in France together with the family of Sir Bentham. He
suffered depression because of “great physical and mental arduousness” of his studies. He
worked in the House of India and promoted as an assistant examiner. He was put in charge in
British East India Company’s relation after when his father died. His depression dissipated in the
poetry of William Wordsworth. Mill became the outspoken critic in Parliament and the British
Legal System. He was also a contributor of Westminster Review. He continued to enjoy debates
with the scholars who visited his father's house and actively participated in a reading society in
1825. He entered the London Debating Society where he started to challenge the principles for
which he had been brought up. He started to change his perspective and to take a more pragmatic
and realistic approach to political beliefs and the sense of human wellbeing. Mill published his
first edition of a System of Logic in 1843. In his adulting, he was deeply involved in social issues
rather than political ones. He was married by Taylor Mill in 1851 after a friendship in 21 years
yet he claimed that he was influenced in this direction by his wife. Taylor had a major influence
on Mill's work and thought in partnership. It strengthened Mill's support of women's rights. On
the year 1858 when his wife died so Mill decided to live close to the cemetery where his wife
lies. The interest of Mill was on the developing of suffrage of women, reforms for the Irish, and
many other political actions through which on his time has the less possibility to be achieved but
Mill was able to set that victory. Mill died on 1873 in Avignon and was buried beside the tomb
of his wife Harriet.
Mill’s Political Ideas

On Liberty is one of the most meaningful and popularly read sonorities of liberal ideology in the
history of political thought. He mentioned his definition of human rights within the framework of
his views on history and the state. It is a great example of his ability to think on problems in a
logical manner. Mill explains that social liberty is a kind of power that can be "legitimately
exercised" over people and how the power should extend. Mill introduced the concept of the
"harm principle", which holds that each person has the right to act as he wants, as long as those
acts do not harm others. When the action is self-regarding, it personally affects the individual
performing the behavior, then society has no right to interfere, even though that actor is harming
himself (Collier & Son, 1993).

Mill's essay discusses the power of government bodies and society to exert authority on the
individual to interfere with the liberty of action.  He stated that liberty should not extend to all,
but only to those with well-developed mental facilities (Collier & Son, 1993). He uses this
argument to justify racial and autocratic inequality. He discussed that no society can be free if
human liberty is not respected. It includes the “liberty of thoughts and feeling to freedom of
press”. Professionals should also be able to act on their own will, even though others frown upon
the act, because Mill draws the liberty of "combinations between individuals" from the freedoms
of the individual to act as a group,

References:

John Stuart Mill. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/John_Stuart_Mill?fbclid=IwAR0-gxZnO5-
X7jtlRPamR1abX5jD4EsZVDll9VuASP8cttZfmYY5VYj5SV8

C.S. (1993). On Liberty. Retrieved from web.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/Odyssey/Mill_Liberty.html

Warburton (2008). On Liberty. Retrieved from http://openmindplatform.org/wp-

content/uploads/2018/02/John-Stuart-Mill_On-Liberty_Excerpts.pdf