Arguably the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the 1800s, John Stuart Mill (1806-73) was a naturalist, utilitarian, and liberal thinker. His work delved into the implications of a consistently empiricist worldview, uniquely blending key ideas from the Enlightenment with the burgeoning Romantic and historical philosophies of his era. Among his most notable contributions are System of Logic (1843), On Liberty (1859), Utilitarianism (1861), and An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy (1865).
John Stuart Mill was born on 20 May 1806 in Pentonville, then a northern suburb of London, to Harriet Barrow and James Mill. James Mill, a Scotsman, had been educated at Edinburgh University—taught by, amongst others, Dugald Stewart—and had moved to London in 1802, where he was to become a friend and prominent ally of Jeremy Bentham and the Philosophical Radicals. John’s remarkable education, famously recounted in his Autobiography, was conducted with the intention of equipping him for leadership of the next generation of radicalism.
For this, at least, it prepared him well. Starting with Greek at age three and Latin at age eight, Mill had absorbed most of the classical canon by age twelve—along with algebra, Euclid, and the major Scottish and English historians. In his early teenage years, he studied political economy, logic, and calculus, utilising his spare time to digest treatises on experimental science as an amusement. At age fifteen—upon returning from a year-long trip to France, a nation he would eventually call home—he started work on the major treatises of philosophy, psychology and government. All this was conducted under the strict daily supervision of his father—with young John holding primary responsibility for the education of his siblings (Reeves 2007: 11–27).
The intensity of study and weight of expectation took its toll. Mill had internalised the radical and utilitarian creed during his education—a process capped off with a close reading of Bentham in Dumont’s French translation and editorial responsibility for Bentham’s Rationale of Judicial Evidence—and had begun to put it into practise as a youthful propagandist. But he quickly found that his education had not prepared him for life. Mill suffered, aged twenty, a “mental crisis”.
Mill’s period of profound unease persisted through 1826 and 1827 (Capaldi, 2004: 55ff.). While similar episodes resurfaced later in his life, he initially found solace and recovery in Romantic poetry. This experience fostered a new dimension in Mill’s character, leading him to appreciate the significance of cultivated emotions alongside the necessity of social reform. Wordsworth held particular importance for Mill during this period, though his expanding interests soon drew him to the works of Coleridge, Carlyle, and Goethe.
Exposure to these thinkers instilled in Mill a lasting receptiveness to Romantic ideas and a keen understanding that the Enlightenment philosophy of his upbringing represented only a partial perspective (Autobiography, I: 169). Integrating and reconciling these opposing philosophical schools became his core philosophical objective, a pursuit that would define his life’s work. As he observed, “[W]hoever could master the premises and combine the methods of both, would possess the entire English philosophy of their age” (Coleridge, X: 121).
This newly embraced eclecticism also spurred productive interactions with figures such as Francois Guizot, Auguste Comte, and Tocqueville. Each of them would have a long-lasting impact on Mill’s intellectual development. Concurrent with these influences, Harriet Taylor emerged as a significant figure in Mill’s life during this time (Kinzer, 2007: 77–111). Mill and Harriet’s initial meeting took place at a dinner party in 1830, and they quickly developed a romantic bond. Harriet had previously married John Taylor, a congenial, though intellectually conservative, pharmacist, four years earlier.
Eventually, the trio established an arrangement that allowed Mill to visit Harriet at the Taylors’ country home in her husband’s absence and at their London home while John visited his club. This unusual situation endured for several years, and by all accounts, Mill and Harriet’s relationship remained purely platonic. Following John Taylor’s death in 1849, Harriet and Mill married in 1851. However, the perceived scandal surrounding their relationship created a deep division between Mill and many of his acquaintances. Mill experienced firsthand the constricting effects of Victorian moralism and oppressive social conventions, a theme he would later explore in On Liberty.
Mill deeply admired Harriet, acknowledging her significant contribution as a virtual co-author of numerous his writings. Determining the extent of her impact on Mill’s thinking poses a challenge, given their close collaboration in developing many of his core concepts. Sadly, Harriet passed away in 1858 during a trip to France with Mill. She was laid to rest in Avignon, prompting Mill to buy a house nearby the cemetery, where he resided for the remainder of his life. Mill inscribed on her grave that
“[s]he was the sole earthly delight of those who had the happiness to belong to her. […] Were there but a few hearts and intellects like hers this earth would already become the hoped-for heaven.”
Mill’s retirement from the East India Company occurred a month before Harriet’s death, where he had been employed for thirty-five years, having started as a junior clerk at the age of seventeen and eventually becoming the Chief Examiner of Correspondence. This position, which involved managing dispatches for colonial administration, provided him with a stable income for his philosophical pursuits. Mill, who never held a university post or attended university, was elected as the Member of Parliament for Westminster for the Liberal Party in 1865, but declined to actively campaign for the seat.
During his time in the Commons, he advocated for unpopular but important causes, such as the extension of suffrage to women, Irish reform, and the prosecution of Governor Eyre for atrocities committed during his administration of Jamaica. He lost his bid for re-election in 1868. Mill, a religious skeptic who never held religious beliefs, died in Avignon on May 7, 1873, and was buried next to his wife. His only “honorary” university position was as Rector of the University of St Andrews.
