John Stuart Mill
Liberal philosopher and political economist
John Stuart Mill was a 19th-century English philosopher and political economist. He wrote On Liberty and Utilitarianism, and is a central figure in liberal thought.
2 summaries 29 min of listening
British Born 1806 in London Borough of Islington Died 1873
Influenced by Adam Smith, Arthur Schopenhauer, Immanuel Kant
About John Stuart Mill
Born in Pentonville, London, on 20 May 1806, Mill worked as a philosopher, political economist and civil servant, and also served as a Member of Parliament. He is regarded as an influential liberal thinker of his century. He argued that liberty justifies individual freedom against unlimited state and social control, and he formulated the Harm principle. His essay On Liberty appeared in 1859. He also supported utilitarianism, which Jeremy Bentham first developed, but understood it differently from Bentham. Mill called for proportional representation and for the emancipation of women, and he backed labor organizations too. He co-wrote The Subjection of Women (1869).