Politics

Major works:

John Stuart Mill was highly supportive of personal Liberty, especially of speech and thought.  He believed that freedom was a naturally given right and he also thought that society would be at its best if each person was allowed to make their own decisions.  He believed that this would allow each person to be their best and it would nurture moral freedom and rationality.

In one of his famous essay’s, “On Liberty,” he covers what should be rightfully forced upon a society. One of the significant achievements of Mill was developing the theory of harm principle. Harm principle states that each individual has the right to act according to his wants until his actions don’t harm others. He also debates that free discourse is necessary for intellectual and social progress (“John Stuart Mill,” 2008.) According to Mill, the best kind of beliefs and actions are those that emerge from the person’s own critical assessments.  He thought that individuality is one of the main ingredients of human happiness.

Mill was a huge advocate for utilitarianism.  According to Dictionary.com, Utilitarianism is the ethical doctrine that virtue is based on utility, and that conduct should be directed toward promoting the greatest happiness of the greatest number of persons.  John’s father and his close friend, James Bentham, wanted to see this theory progress with John.

John Stuart Mill believed that representative government was extremely important for a successful society.  He believed that representative government encourages individuality.  Even though Mill was a huge supporter of universal freedom, he suggested that higher educated voters be given more votes.  He did this in order to protect minorities in a democratic voting system. The more responsible and educated people would be made more influential by giving them more votes.  Even poor people that were educated would be able to have more votes.

He also played a role in helping the interests of minorities in other countries.  After the rebellion in 1837 in Canada, he defended Lord Durham’s recommendations for internal responsible self-government in the colonies, liberated from any colonial power. Mill defended the interests of the the French population in Canada and recommended a form of a federal government that would protect everyone’s interests (“John Stuart Mill,” 2008.)  The British North America Act of 1867 created Canada as a confederation.  Mill was a member of parliament when the act was passed.

John Stuart Mill was a huge supporter of women’s rights.  His essay, Subjection of Women, is a lasting defense of gender equality.  His strong views about women’s rights differed from his father’s.  This led to plenty of disagreements with him.  His father thought that the male could adequately represent the family’s interests.  Of course, John Stuart Mill defended that the interests of the male could be different from the female of the family.  At the time, he was one of the few that saw women as equal citizens as men.  It was important that Mill did not just accept such prejudices and follow his own rules for basing good evidence.  He accepted prejudices as reasonable and had them contribute to the pervasive customs that enforce conformity.  This obscured the fact that society had placed limits on what women might freely choose.  Subjection of Women still proves to be inspiring to those working for women’s rights.  While he was a member of parliament, he supported the Reform Bill of 1867.  He also moved an amendment that would have given women the vote if it were passed (“John Stuart Mill,” 2008.)  He came to the conclusion that women’s suffrage is an essential step toward the moral improvement of humankind.

References:

Fred, W., & Zalta, E. (2014). John Stuart Mill. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

“John Stuart Mill.” The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. 2008. Library of Economics and Liberty. Retrieved April 13, 2014 from the World Wide Web: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Mill.html

John Stuart Mill . (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 08:50, Apr 14, 2014, fromhttp://www.biography.com/people/john-stuart-mill-9408210.

John Stuart Mill. (2014). The Famous People website. Retrieved 12:47, Apr 7, 2014, from http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/john-stuart-mill-150.php.

Mill, J. S. (1873). Autobiography. New York : P.F. COLLIER & SON COMPANY.

Utilitarianism. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved April 13, 2014, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Utilitarianism