Ideas and Ideologies of Mill - Essay Example

Introduction John Stuart Mill was a 19th century British philosopher, economist, moral and political theorist, administrator and Member of Parliament. Mill was one of the greatest liberal thinkers of the Victorian era; he made a significant impact on the study of philosophy through his restatements of the principles underlying philosophical empiricism and utilitarianism. Though J.S. Mill was a defender of individual liberty and an advocate of democracy he believed, like Plato, that "higher minds" should set the tone of society. Ideas and Ideologies of Mill Mill, was taught Greek, Latin, mathematics, philosophy and economics from a very early age by his father with the advice of utilitarian reformer Jeremy Bentham. Initially Mill followed the strict utilitarian line of his father and Bentham, but with their deaths, Mill had more intellectual freedom, from which he initiated a new “philosophic radicalism”. Later at the age of twenty Mill suffered a mental break down which made him conscious, that more was needed in life than devotion to the public good and an analytical intellect. He turned towards Coleridge, Carlyle, Wordsworth and Goethe to cultivate his aesthetic sensibilities. From 1830 to his death, he tried to persuade the British public of the necessity of a scientific approach to understanding social, political and economic change while not neglecting the insights of poets and other imaginative writers. (The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy ed.) Mill was also strongly influenced by his wife Harriet Taylor and became more inclined and sympathetic towards socialism, women's rights and political and social reforms such as proportional representation, labour unions, and farm co-operatives. Logic Mill use logic derived from the principles of the natural sciences to address questions of language and logic, induction, the relativity of knowledge, the structure of the scientific method, the structure of arithmetic and geometry, and the principles of the moral sciences. Mill was committed to the idea that our best methods of explaining the world are those employed by the natural sciences. His System of Logic 1843 was an account not only of logic, as the title implies, but of the methods of science and their applicability to social as well as purely natural phenomena. ‘The object of logic “is to ascertain how we come by that portion of our knowledge (much the greatest portion) which is not intuitive: and by what criterion we can, in matters not self-evident, distinguish between things proved and things not proved, between what is worthy and what is unworthy of belief.” (A System of Logic [System], I.i.1). Utilitarianism Mill was a strong advocate of utilitarianism although his conception of it was very different from Bentham's. Mill published Utilitarianism 1861 in instalments in Fraser’s Magazine and was later brought out in book form in 1863. It offers a contender for a first principle of morality, a principle that provides us with a criterion distinguishing right and wrong (The Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy). The utilitarian candidate is the principle of utility, which holds that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure.” (Complete Works of , X.210) Liberty Mills was a strong advocate of individual freedom; his On Liberty-1859 an important document of political liberalism is an articulate validation of the freedom of the individual in opposition to the claims of the state to impose unlimited control and is thus a defense of the rights of the individual against the state. In this document he introduces different tyrannies such as social tyranny, and the tyranny of the majority which democracies are prone to. This social “tyranny of the majority” arises from the enforcement of rules of conduct that are both arbitrary and strongly adhered to. He states that human beings are fallible, and therefore they need to experiment with different ways of living. However, individual liberty must always be expressed in order to achieve social and personal progress. Mill also focuses strongly on the harm principle; “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.” (On Liberty-1859) On Liberty till date is a highly influential work with great political discourse and to this day, a copy of On Liberty has been passed to the president of the British Liberals and then Liberal Democrats as a symbol of office and succession from the party that Mill helped found. Social, Economical & Political Mill was a strong activist of socialist views, women’s rights, slavery, political reforms, labour unions, farm cooperatives, free market economics, and expanded democracy. He wrote on specific political problems in India, America, Ireland, France, and England, on the nature of democracy, on slavery, on law and jurisprudence, on the workplace, and on the family and the status of women. The Subjection of Women written Mill in 1869, jointly with his wife was an argument in favour of equality between the sexes. At the time it was published, it was an extremely radical essay and affront to European social norms, in which women were generally subject to the whims of her husband or father due to social norms which said women were both physically and mentally less able than men. Mill defends the emancipation of women on utilitarian grounds and argued that all people should be able to vote and often used his position as an MP to demand the vote for women, a controversial position for the time. The Subjection of Women is considered as a classic statement of liberal feminism. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy 1848, addresses issues of social and political concern. Mill intended the work as both a survey of contemporary economic thought and as an exploration of applications of economic ideas to social concerns. Its philosophical interest lay in Mill's reflections on the difference between what economics measured and what human beings really valued, it was “not a book merely of abstract science, but also of application, and treated Political Economy not as a thing by itself, but as a fragment of a greater whole.” (CW, I.243). Mill often stated that the idea of religion involving doctrine repulsed him as it imposes an unchallengeable opinion from an infallible authority such as God. His Three Essays on Religion 1874 published after his death, stated that it is impossible that the universe is governed by an omnipotent and loving God, but not unlikely that a less omnipotent benign force is at work in the world. But they are discussion of debatable topics, and highly readable to this day." Conclusion J.S Mills was a radical thinker of his time and his ideas and works are still widely recognised and appreciated, though not all his ideas are valid for the modern era, they are still acknowledged and accredited. His far-reaching ideas on socialism, logic, women's rights, liberty and political, economical and social reforms created a deep impact on society which provoked thought and still provides a path for thinking about human problems in a serious and civilized way. Bibliography 1. A System of Logic [System], I.i.1. Mill, John Stuart 2. Colin Heydt - John Stuart Mill: Overview -The Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy 3. Mill, John Stuart- The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill- CW, X.210 4. Mill, John Stuart- The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill. -CW, I.243 5. John Stuart Mill,- 1859-On Liberty 6. Thomas Mautner- The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy ed. ISBN 0-14-051250-0 http://www.utilitarianism.com/jsmill.htm Read More