John Stuart Mill
1) His Biography:
An influential character in nineteenth-century intellectual life was John Stuart Mill (1806–1873). He made contributions to the domains of social and political philosophy, economics, ethics, and logic. He is now most recognised for his arguments of liberalism and utilitarianism, which are connected. Mill’s ascent to fame was not a coincidence. He was the oldest son of James Mill, a scholar and reformer closely associated with Jeremy Bentham, who was born in Pentonville, England, not far from London. The two leaders of a group known as the Philosophical Radicals who shared a belief in utilitarianism as the cornerstone of political revolution were Bentham and Mill.
Together, the two came up with a rigorous educational plan to prepare young Mill to carry on the utilitarian legacy. He was home-schooled and started learning Latin and ancient Greek when he was eight years old. By the time he was in his early teens, Mill was already authoring essays defending his inherited philosophy. He started working at the East India Company, where his father also had a job, when he was seventeen. Over the course of his more than 30 years with the business, he steadily advanced to the position of chief examiner of correspondence. He had enough time to write thanks to the job’s reliable income.
During a severe depressive episode in his early twenties, Mill came to the conclusion that his rigorous academic training had left him emotionally undeveloped. In his autobiography, Mill describes how Wordsworth’s poetry aided his recovery. He also started to see the philosophy of the Philosophical Radicals with greater scepticism. He broadened his horizons intellectually and developed an interest in the historicist and romanticist schools of European thinking.
Thomas Macaulay, Samuel Coleridge, August Comte, and Thomas Carlyle all had a big impact. The rigid rationality of early utilitarianism was modified by Mill as he became increasingly aware of the significance of institutions and culture in historical evolution. In order to bring together the historicism and romanticism of the nineteenth century with the egalitarian rationality of the eighteenth, he started to build what he considered as a new type of philosophical radicalism.
The wife of merchant John Taylor, Harriet Taylor, was the one Mill met and fell in love with around 1830. The two maintained a close, ostensibly platonic connection for many years before getting married two years after John Taylor’s passing. Harriet had a significant impact on Mill; she frequently served as his editor and critic. After her death in 1858, he was unable to move on and spent six months of each year travelling to France to be nearer to her grave. After leaving the East India Company, Mill ran for office and was elected as the Liberal MP for Westminster in 1865.
He frequently stated that representatives should behave in accordance with their own moral principles rather than merely reflecting the views of their voters because government is a trust. Mill made good on this belief throughout his lone term in government by taking a number of divisive positions. Inability to gain a second term was a result of his attempt to include women’s suffrage to the Reform Act of 1867 and his support for anticolonial actions in the West Indies. In Avignon, where he passed away in 1873, Mill was buried next to his wife.
2) Main Works:
A System of Logic (1843):
This work outlines the methods of science and how they can be applied to social mechanics.
Principles of Political Economy (1848):
This work combines the disciplines of philosophy and economics and advocates that a population that limits and slows economic growth would be beneficial to the environment and increase public goods.
On Liberty (1859):
This book addresses the nature and limits of the power that can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual, introducing the harm principle and defending free speech.
Utilitarianism (1863):
This work expounds on Bentham’s original philosophy, using it as the foundation of morals—rejecting the idea that it promotes narrow self-interest, and arguing it aims for the betterment of society as a whole.
The Subjection of Women (1869):
In this work Mill makes the case for women’s suffrage and gender equality.
Three Essays on Religion (1874):
In this work, Mill critiques traditional, religious orthodoxy and advocates a more liberal “religion of humanity” and it was published posthumously.
3) Main Themes:
Logic as Induction:
The logical framework presented by Aristotle in his Organon (see chapter 2, Aristotle) had long been regarded as the standard until Mill authored his System of Logic. Aristotle’s logic is a set of guidelines for formulating syllogisms, which are arguments that begin with a broad premise and come to a specific conclusion, like “All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.”
However, Mill was an empiricist who held the view that all knowledge is derived from our senses and that we can only come to accept any general principles after encountering numerous specific instances that support them. Although other empiricist philosophers, including Locke, have maintained that experience is the only source of knowledge, no one had made an attempt to provide a set of guidelines for how we arrive at general principles by beginning with particulars, like to Aristotle’s, until Mill.
Deductive logic, in which we extrapolate from general principles, and inductive logic, in which we draw conclusions from particular examples, were defined by Mill. Inductive reasoning, according to Mill, is the real foundation of knowledge. Although Mill outlines a wide range of induction types, his system’s fundamental ideas are rather simple. The inductive technique is founded on the concept of causation; it seeks to identify the cause of an event. Mill takes into account numerous forms of argument and evidence, but elimination is the key technique for identifying a cause. If an event occurs under one set of conditions but not under another set of circumstances that are identical, but for that one difference, that difference must be the event’s cause. A more complex inductive approach that first identifies individual causes through deduction and then their combination through deduction can be used to explain complex phenomena with multiple causes.
For instance, to develop numerous particular laws governing how nutrition, genetics, exercise, age, and other things impact the heart, we would utilise empirical evidence from trials (i.e., induction), and then we would use deduction to come at a hypothesis for how these laws may interact. Finally, we would use induction to confirm these hypotheses (more experimentation and examination of empirical evidence). Induction is no longer regarded as the foundation of logic, despite Mill’s belief that it is. While logic proper is limited to deduction, the procedures of evidence and proof that Mill discussed are now regarded as an element of the scientific method.
The Subject of Experience:
According to Mill, experience is the only legitimate source of knowledge. He disapproves of the concept of what he terms intuitive knowledge, which could refer to any knowledge that the mind quickly and confidently grasps without first being confirmed via repeated observation. Plato’s Forms or Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” are examples of intuitive understanding. However, the question of what the self is arises if the mind is unable to immediately recognise itself as a self. According to Mill, the mind is a collection of both real and conceivable states of being, while the body is a constant potentiality of sensations.
To put it another way, neither the brain nor the body can be referred to be “individuals” in the sense that we typically use the term, which is to say, a stable, consistent, and recognisable self. Mill struggles with the issue of how a collection of various impressions or states may be aware of itself. According to Mill, there appears to be a connection between the many parts of a series (such as the numerous mental states that a person experiences), which enables us to argue that these parts are the emotions of a person who remains the same throughout. This connection makes up the ego. However, Mill’s argument here seems to depend on the existence of a faculty of perception very much like intuition—our minds apparently intuit the bond between elements in a series.
Experience as the Ground of Knowledge:
For Mill, experience is something that can be verified, examined, and shown through thorough observation and analysis. The conclusions we draw from experience must be put to the test. The fundamental laws of mathematics and logic, which proponents of intuitive knowledge had long used as evidence that certain information may be acquired without the need for experience, are, according to Mill, nothing more than generalisations from experience. He contends that the law of contradiction, another allegedly inherent principle that states that nothing can be simultaneously true and false, is only an explanation of the incongruity between belief and nonbelief. He contends that any knowledge is only hypothetical and hence made up.
Because it is a generalisation drawn from the observation of an invariable and unconditional sequence, he sees the law of causation—the idea that every occurrence has a cause—as being crucial to his inductive framework. Additionally, Mill recognises just one type of inference—that which takes place from particular to specific – employs it to interpret the record of particular experiences because they are the sole source of data that may support any conclusion.
Ethics vs. Behavior:
Mill looked at the issue of what people do from two separate angles. First, he noticed that certain reasons and certain behaviours follow highly predictable, even invariable patterns. The current social and behavioural sciences emerged from Mill’s and some of his contemporaries’ intuition that human behaviour is predictable and that it is feasible to examine it scientifically. Mill noted in particular that people constantly act to maximise their own pleasure. It would be pointless to expect people to behave differently or to argue with them that they should behave differently because this insight is essentially a behavioural law.
However, Mill also looked at how people behave ethically. This second viewpoint would initially appear to be at odds with the first. While the study of human behaviour focuses on what people actually do and what motivates them to do it, ethics is concerned with what people should do and presumes that people have freedom of choice. Because he thought that acting for the greater good for the largest number of people does not always clash with the pursuit of pleasure, which is what genuinely drives human beings, Mill was able to unite these two viewpoints.
There are several forms of pleasure, and we can learn to avoid the lower-grade ones in favour of the more elevated ones. Additionally, Mill believed that the study of human behaviour served as a tool for advancing ethics. By examining the impacts of human behaviour from a scientific perspective, we can identify the behaviours that are most conducive to everyone’s pleasure. Mill disagrees with the notion that morality may be discerned intuitively and contends that morality must be determined by the effects of our acts.
Government as a Force for Moral Education:
According to Mill, government does not exist just to facilitate and provide as much pleasure as possible for its citizens to enjoy. Government must instead make an ongoing effort to educate its people to choose higher-order, intellectual pleasures over lower-order ones. In actuality, moral education must be carried out by both the government and each individual in order for there to be a good society.
This moral teaching needs to be carried out with the understanding that individuals are not just hedonistic pleasure seekers, but rather progressive beings that seek out greater pleasures by nature. So, a good government is one that encourages all of its residents to take an active role in it. No matter how reasonable the demands and whims of the governing class may appear to be, a poor government is one that compels its people to submit meekly to them.
The Individual as a Product of Society:
Like many of the philosophers who came before him in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Mill believed that each individual was holy and took precedence over the state in that the latter only existed for the benefit of individuals rather than the former. Contrary to Hobbes and Rousseau, Mill was not interested in the individual as they could have existed in nature prior to entering society. Instead, Mill envisioned the value of the person as they would develop with the right education in an orderly society.
He believes that each person is endowed with a variety of potentials, some of which can only be realised in cooperation with society and used to the advantage of the society in which they live. Mill encourages leading an active lifestyle so that people can use their varied abilities and gifts to spread happiness to as many people as possible. He believes that living an active life is morally superior to living a passive one.
4) Utilitarianism in Bentham:
Many people consider Jeremy Bentham to be the father of traditional utilitarianism. Bentham claimed to have discovered “the principle of utility” in 1769, having been influenced by the works of Hume, Priestley, Helvétius, and Beccaria. Any activity is ethical inasmuch as it increases happiness and wrong insofar as it increases pain, according to this utilitarian ethics guiding principle. Bentham defined happiness as nothing more than pleasure and the absence of suffering, which could be measured based on their degree and duration. He famously derided the concept of inalienable natural rights—rights that exist regardless of whether any government enforces them—as “nonsense on stilts.” Bentham’s ideas on legal rights were influenced by the way in which the principle of utility was applied to the law and to the government.
He made an effort to develop a “utilitarian pannomion” during his lifetime, which is a comprehensive body of law based on the utility principle. During his lifetime, he had a few small achievements in law reform (the Scottish historian John Hill Burton was able to link Bentham’s ideas to 26 legal reforms as early as 1843) and he continued to have a significant impact on British public life. In Georgian and Victorian Britain, many of Bentham’s ideas were regarded as radical. His homosexuality-related papers were so permissive that even after his passing, his editor kept them from the public. His views that the goal of government should be to maximise happiness and that the severity of punishment should be proportional to the harm inflicted, this informed his stance on the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
He was also a pioneer of animal welfare, famously saying that the fact that animals can feel pain justifies our concern for them: The question is not can they reason? Additionally, are they able to communicate verbally? But can they endure pain? Along with supporting the rights of animals and the legalisation of homosexuality, Bentham also advocated for the abolition of slavery, the death penalty, corporal punishment, jail reform, and economic liberalisation. He also supported women’s rights, especially the right to divorce.
Bentham used the utility principle to reform political structures as well. He backed democratic reforms like the expansion of the suffrage because he thought that with more education, individuals may more clearly identify their long-term interests. He also supported these reforms because he saw improvement in education within his own community. Additionally, he promoted increased freedom of speech, openness, and public exposure of public servants as accountability measures. He supported the separation of church and state since he was a fervent atheist.
5) Utilitarianism in Mill:
According to Mill, utilitarianism is a theory built on the tenet that actions are right in proportion to the tendency they have to cause happiness, wrong in proportion to the tendency they have to produce the opposite of happiness. According to Mill, happiness is the combination of pleasure and the absence of suffering. He contends that enjoyment can vary in both quality and quantity, and that higher-order pleasures should be given greater weight than lower-order pleasures. Additionally, Mill contends that happiness should include people’s accomplishment of their objectives and ends, such as leading moral lives.
According to Mill, utilitarianism is consistent with “natural” feelings that stem from the social nature of humanity. Therefore, if society adopted utilitarianism as its guiding ethic, individuals would logically internalise these principles as morally obligatory. According to Mill, people only want happiness and that is the only foundation for morality. He provides evidence to support this assertion by demonstrating how all other things that people desire are either ways to achieve happiness or are part of the concept of happiness. The sense of justice is essentially founded on utility, and rights only exist because they are required for human enjoyment, according to Mill, who goes into great detail about this.
6) His Legacy:
The way of life of Mill was one of extreme simplicity. There is no denying the worth of the open and inquisitive attitude with which he approached the important issues of his time, nor can the influence that his works had on modern English philosophy be overstated. Beyond that, though, there have been significant differences of opinion on his philosophy’s long-term benefits. He appears to be one of the clearest philosophers at first glance. Many individuals have praised his writing’s incredible comprehensibility. However, in most cases, scepticism sets up rather quickly. Although the lucidity remains, its span is seen to be somewhat limited, and one sometimes has the uneasy feeling that he is being equally lucid on both sides of a question.
Strangely enough, Mill has not been neglected as a result of this decision. Hamilton and Whewell are no longer given much attention, while Mill’s name is frequently brought up in philosophical debates. This is partially because Mill provides a body of theory and a glossary of technical terms on a variety of topics, most notably induction, which have proven to be quite helpful in the classroom.
However, a more significant reason is that he has come to be seen as a sort of embodiment of certain philosophical tendencies that are constantly seen to require elaboration or exposure because they have such a strong pull on serious minds. Thus, he is, or claims to be, a utilitarian; nonetheless, it is noted that certain passages in his texts could tell more strongly against utilitarianism. On the other hand, he is accused of being an empiricist (despite the fact that he insists he is not), and his theories of the syllogism and mathematics are frequently employed to highlight the disastrous effects of this way of thinking.
Speaking unqualifiedly about Mill’s utilitarianism is misleading. It also doesn’t suffice to say that Mill made changes to the utilitarianism he received from his father and from Bentham in order to address the critiques it faced throughout the Victorian era. He does, in fact, occasionally convey that impression (as in his essay Utilitarianism), but in other instances (such as in his essay On Liberty), he hardly makes an effort to hide the fact that his premises are wholly unrelated to those of Bentham. Thus, in contrast to popular assumption, it appears to be quite risky to characterise Mill’s precise position on any important philosophical topic offhand. He occasionally exhibited a careless disregard for consequences more in keeping with a romantic than a utilitarian.
By eagerly seeking out and attempting to embrace every last unusual line of thought that has any signs of vitality, he is once more utterly romantic and utterly typical of his time. Despite his father’s meticulous upbringing, Mill was the only person who, in his own words, was less resistant to other influences than most of his contemporaries in terms of capacity and readiness to learn from everyone. Every wind of doctrine from the early 19th century can be found in his writings.
