1806-1873. English philosopher and economist
who wrote On Liberty 1859, the classic
philosophical defence of liberalism, and
Utilitarianism 1863, a version of the
`greatest happiness for the greatest number'
principle in ethics. His progressive views
inspired On the Subjection of Women 1869. In
his social philosophy, he gradually abandoned
the Utilitarians' extreme individualism for
an outlook akin to liberal socialism, while
still laying great emphasis on the liberty of
the individual; this change can be traced in
the later editions of Principles of Political
Economy 1848. He was born in London, the son
of James Mill. In 1822 he entered the East
India Company, where he remained until
retiring in 1858. In 1826, as described in
his Autobiography 1873, he passed through a
mental crisis; he found his father's bleakly
intellectual Utilitarianism emotionally
unsatisfying and abandoned it for a more
human philosophy influenced by Coleridge. In
Utilitarianism, he states that actions are
right if they bring about happiness and wrong
if they bring about the reverse of happiness.
On Liberty moved away from the utilitarian
notion that individual liberty was necessary
for economic and governmental efficiency and
advanced the classical defence of individual
freedom as a value in itself and the mark of
a mature society. He sat in Parliament as a
Radical 1865-68 and introduced a motion for
women's suffrage. His philosophical and
political writings include A System of Logic
1843 and Considerations on Representative
Government 1861.