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John Stuart Mill (May 20, 1806 – May 8,
1873), aka JS Mill, an English (people)|English
philosopher and political economy|political
economist, was an influential classical
liberalism|classical liberal thinker of the 19th
century. He was an advocate of utilitarianism, the
ethical theory first proposed by his godfather
Jeremy Bentham. 

== Biography ==
John Stuart Mill was born in Pentonville, London,
the eldest son of James Mill. Mill was educated by
his father, with the advice and assistance of
Jeremy Bentham and Francis Place. He was given an
extremely rigorous upbringing, and was
deliberately shielded from association with boys
his own age. His father, a follower of Jeremy
Bentham|Bentham and an adherent of associationism,
had as his explicit aim to create a genius
intellect that would carry on the cause of
utilitarianism and its implementation after he and
Bentham were dead. 

His feats as a child were exceptional; at the age
of three he was taught the Greek alphabet and long
lists of Greek words with their English
equivalents. By the age of eight he had read
Aesop|Aesop's Aesop's Fables|Fables, Xenophon's
Anabasis_(Xenophon)|Anabasis, and the whole of
Herodotus, and was acquainted with Lucian,
Diogenes Laërtius, Isocrates and six dialogues of
Plato (see his Autobiography). He had also read a
great deal of history in English and had been
taught arithmetic.

A contemporary record of Mill's studies from eight
to thirteen is published in Alexander Bain|Bain's
sketch of his life. It suggests that his
autobiography rather understates the amount of
work done. At the age of eight he began learning
Latin, Euclid, and algebra, and was appointed
schoolmaster to the younger children of the
family. His main reading was still history, but he
went through all the Latin and Greek
language|Greek authors commonly read in the
schools and universities at the time. He was not
taught to compose either in Latin or in Greek, and
he was never an exact scholar; it was for the
subject matter that he was required to read, and
by the age of ten he could read Plato and
Demosthenes with ease. His father's History of
India was published in 1818; immediately
thereafter, about the age of twelve, John began a
thorough study of the scholastic logic, at the
same time reading Aristotle's logical treatises in
the original language. In the following year he
was introduced to political economy and studied
Adam Smith and David Ricardo with his
father--ultimately completing their Classical
economics|classical economic view of factors of
production.

In 1823 he co-founded the Westminster Review with
Jeremy Bentham as a journal for philosophical
radicals.

This intensive study however had injurious effects
on Mill's mental health, and state of mind.  At
the age of 21 he suffered a nervous breakdown; as
explained in chapter V of his Autobiography, this
was caused by the great physical and mental
arduousness of his studies which had suppressed
any feelings or spirituality he might have
developed normally in childhood.  Nevertheless,
this depression eventually began to dissipate, as
he began to find solace in the poetry of William
Wordsworth, and in the company of Harriet Taylor. 
His capacity for emotion resurfaced, remarking
that the "cloud gradually drew off".  

Mill worked for the British East India Company,
but he was also a Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal
member of Parliament of the United
Kingdom|Parliament.  Mill advocated easing the
burdens on Ireland, and basically worked for what
he considered reason.  In Considerations on
Representative Government Mill called for various
reforms of Parliament and voting, especially
proportional representation and the extension of
suffrage.  He was godfather to Bertrand Russell.



In 1851 Mill married Harriet Taylor Mill|Harriet
Taylor after 21 years of friendship. Taylor was a
significant influence on Mills's work and ideas
during both friendship and marriage.  His
relationship with Harriet Taylor inspired Mill's
advocacy of  Womens' rights|women's rights.

==Work==
One foundational book on the concept of liberty
was On Liberty, about the nature and limits of the
power which can be legitimately exercised by
society over the individual. One argument that
Mill formed was the harm principle, that is,
people should be free to engage in whatever
behavior they wish as long as it does not harm
others. 

John Stuart Mill only speaks of negative liberty
in On Liberty, a concept formed and named by
Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997). Isaiah Berlin suggests
that negative liberty is an absence or lack of
impediments, obstacles or coercion. This is in
contrast with his other idea of positive liberty,
a capacity for behavior, and the presence of
conditions for freedom, be they material
resources, a level of enlightenment, or the
opportunity for political participation.

Thus Mill argued that it is Government's role only
to remove the barriers, such as laws, to behaviors
that do not harm others.

Mill's magnum opus was his A System of Logic,
Ratiocinative and Inductive, which went through
several revisions and editions.  In particular,
the eighth edition, in 1872, had several new and
controversial information and supplements added.
There he evaluates Aristotle's categories and
gives his own system. He gives his theory of terms
and propositions and focuses on the inductive
process. William Whewell's History of the
Inductive Sciences (1837) was a chief influence.  


The reputation of this work is largely due to his
analysis of inductive proof, in contrast to
Aristotle's syllogisms, which are deductive. Mill
formulates five methods of induction -- the method
of agreement, the method of difference, the joint
or double method of agreement and difference, the
method of residues, and that of concomitant
variations. The common feature of these methods,
the one real method of scientific inquiry, is that
of elimination. All the other methods are thus
subordinate to the method of difference.  It was 
also Mill's attempt to postulate a
epistemology|theory of knowledge, in the same vein
as John Locke.

==Works==
*(1843) A System of Logic
*(1844) Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of
Political Economy
*(1848) Principles of Political Economy
*(1859) On Liberty
*(1861) Utilitarianism (book)|Utilitarianism
*(1861) Considerations on Representative
Government
*(1869) The Subjection of Women
*(1873) Autobiography (John Stuart
Mill)|Autobiography

==See also==
*Classical liberalism
*Contributions to liberal theory

==External links==
Wikisource author
Wikiquote
*gutenberg|no=10378|name=Autobiography
*gutenberg|no=5669|name=Considerations on
Representative Government
*gutenberg|no=5123|name=The Contest in America
*gutenberg|no=12004|name=Essays on some unsettled
Questions of Political Economy
*gutenberg|no=11224|name=Utilitarianism


*http://www.orplex.com/gkcp/readbook.aspx?style=ba
sic.xslt&book=Considerations%20on%20Representative
%20Government.xml Considerations on Representative
Government
*http://utilitarian.net/jsmill John Stuart Mill.
Extensive collection of links to writings by and
about J.S. Mill.
*http://atheisme.free.fr/Biographies/Mill_e.htm
Biography, works and quotes of John Stuart Mill