Have you ever been in a situation where you couldn’t contribute to a conversation because you weren’t versed on the topic? We’ve all been there, and that’s why it’s important to read broadly. Reading profiles of wise people can help you because they not only broaden your knowledge base, but also enhances your ability to creatively problem solve.
Take John Stuart Mill, he was the most influential British philosopher of the nineteenth century. His books, A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive
Name: John Stuart Mill
Birth Date: May 1806 – May 1873
Job Functions: Philosopher and Economist
Fields: Philosophy, Economics, Politics
John-stuart-mill 1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
To get the most from The Invisible Mentor Profile of John Stuart Mill, while you are reading it, answer the following questions:
- Are their similarities between the John Stuart Mill and yourself?
- What are your five takeaways from the profile?
- When you think of the person John Stuart Mill, what thoughts immediately come to mind?
- In what ways can you use the information in your work and life?
- Look at the process you use to get your job done, is there any takeaway from the profile that will enable you to perform your work better?
- After reading the profile, what is one concrete action you can take?
Success Lessons
- John Stuart Mill was a child prodigy. He learned Greek and arithmetic at age three, by the time he was eight, Mill had read through the whole Herodotus, six dialogues of Plato and considerable history. Before he was twelve years old, he had studied Euclid and algebra, the Greek and Latin poets, and some English poetry. By the age of 17, Mill had completed advanced courses in science, philosophy, psychology and law.
- Mill’s work at India House allowed him to interact with Indian states, and he corresponded with high-ranking Indian civil servants which gave him broad practical experience in the problems of government.
- Broadened his reading to round out his knowledge.
- Worked in various areas and had broad experience.
- Wrote and developed a substantial body of work.
All the above means is to immerse yourself in diverse experiences.
Biography
John Stuart Mill was the eldest of nine children to James and Harriet Burrow Mill. Mill attributes his intellectual development to the influence of his father, and his wife Harriet Taylor. James Mill was a radical Scottish thinker who promoted the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham.
Mill’s main tutor was his father and he was something of a child prodigy, learning Greek and arithmetic at age three. By the time he was eight, Mill had read through the whole Herodotus (The Histories, Revised (Penguin Classics)
When he was 12, Mill was introduced to logic in Aristotle’s The Organon
By the age of 17, Mill had completed advanced courses in science, philosophy, psychology and law. The rigorous training of his education allowed Mill to develop a keen analytical mind, and the “virtue” of being highly self-critical. He was also emotionally dependent on his father.
In 1826, when Mill was 20, he fell into an intense bout of depression that would last until 1830. Though he didn’t sever relations with his father, he started to react against the intellectual influence of both his father and Bentham. Mill believed that his breakdown was due to suppression of feelings he experienced in childhood due to the cold, disciplined tutelage under his father. He never had a childhood like other children, and never associated with anyone his own age. Mill re-evaluated the tenets of utilitarianism and reconsidered the purpose and aim of his life.
Mill had posed the question, “Suppose that all your objects in life were realized; that all the changes in institutions and opinions which you are looking forward to, could be completely effected at this very instant: would this be a great joy or happiness to you? He reported that “an irrepressible self-consciousness distinctly answered, ‘No’” and this pushed him into the depression which lasted several years.”
Healing From Depression
A break in Mill’s depression came while he was reading Mémoires by Jean-François Marmontel, a French historian and writer, and a member of the Encyclopediste movement. “‘I…came to the passage which relates his father’s death, the distressed position of the family, and the sudden inspiration by which he, then a mere boy, felt and made them feel that he would be everything to them – would supply the place of all that they had lost.’ He was moved to tears by the scene, and from this moment his ‘burden grew lighter.’”
Also while he was going through the mental crisis, his friend, poet John Sterling, introduced him to the works of prominent Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who he subsequently met. Mill’s friend Thomas Carlyle exposed him to the works of Henri Saint-Simon and Johann Wolfgang van Goethe, and encouraged him to critique his father’s and Bentham’s thought. Gustave d’Eichthal introduced Mill to the works of Auguste Comte. These new works helped him to round out the education he received from his father. Mill attempted to incorporate into his own thinking what he thought was sound in their doctrines.
In 1831 when he was 25, Mill also met Harriet Taylor, the wife of a successful merchant and mother of several children. The two developed a deep platonic relationship and saw each other all the time. In Mill’s opinion, Taylor was a genius, and he discussed all his work with her. When Taylor’s husband died in 1949, Mill married her two years later. Taylor influenced Mill as deeply as his father, but in a more positive way. She also encouraged Mill to take up the cause of women’s liberation and their right to vote. And she also convinced him that individuals were not maximizing the benefits in their lives that a new theory of human conditions was necessary. The couple would only have seven years together as man and wife as she died in 1858 while they were travelling in France. Her influence is seen in some of his writings.
From when he was 17 in 1822, Mill supported himself by working as a clerk for his father at India House, the large East Indian trading company. He was soon promoted to assistant examiner, and rose in the company to chief of the examiner’s office and would stay with the company until its dissolution in 1858. Mill’s work at India House allowed him to interact with Indian states, and he corresponded with high-ranking Indian civil servants which gave him broad practical experience in the problems of government. From 1865 to 1868, Mill served as an independent Member of Parliament, and lord rector of the University of St. Andrew during the same period.
While working for India house, Mill became a prolific writer and maintained a writing career. Mill’s most important work, A System in Logic was produced in mid-life in 1843, but he is best remembered for Utilitarianism
Mill’s utilitarianism is a refinement on the views held by his father James Mill and Jeremy Bentham. “Like Bentham, Mill maintains that the fundamental guide to moral action should be the maximization of pleasure and minimization of pain. Mill formulated this as ‘the Greatest Happiness Principle,’ 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’.”
Mill achieved fame with the publication of A System in Logic in 1843, which was influenced by his long correspondence with Auguste Comte. A System in Logic discussed technical topics in philosophy and expressed the hope and limitations of producing a social science that could be the basis of sound public policy. Mill later renounced his relationship with the Comte who had views that women were inherently inferior. His fame grew even more when he published Principles of Political Economy in 1848, which dealt with “all of the economic, social, and political problems created by an industrial and market economy. The work became the standard text in economics for the next fifty years.”
The University of Toronto Press published the Collected Works of John Stuart Mill which consist of 33 volumes of material. “The Collected Works also makes available all of the revisions in successive editions of his major works, such as System of Logic (Vols. VII–VIII) and Principles of Political Economy (Vols. II–III, and it makes available out-of-print works such as his An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy (Vol. IX).”
John Stuart Mill’s Steps to Success
- John Stuart Mill was a child prodigy. He learned Greek and arithmetic at age three, by the time he was eight, Mill had read through the whole Herodotus, six dialogues of Plato and considerable history. Before he was twelve years old, he had studied Euclid and algebra, the Greek and Latin poets, and some English poetry. By the age of 17, Mill had completed advanced courses in science, philosophy, psychology and law.
- Mill’s work at India House allowed him to interact with Indian states, and he corresponded with high-ranking Indian civil servants which gave him broad practical experience in the problems of government.
- Broadened his reading to round out his knowledge.
- Worked in various areas and had broad experience.
- Wrote and developed a substantial body of work.
Why John Stuart Mill’s Contribution Matters
John Stuart Mill left behind a substantial body of work which include A System in Logic, The Subjection of Women, On Liberty, and Utilitarianism. He was also the first person in Parliament to request that a woman should have the right to vote.
Lessons from John Stuart Mill
- Allow your children to be children and to spend time with others in their age group.
- Round out your education. Have in-depth knowledge in your field, but also know a little about a lot of things.
- Develop positive and healthy relationships with others.
Further Reading
Booked on Tuesdays: Review: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
7 Thoughts on the Idea of Tolerance
John Stuart Mill biographer Richard Reeves discusses “The Individual and Society
John Stuart Mill
Cannot view this video? Click here. Uploaded by UniversityofRichmond on Sep 18, 2009
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Works Cited/Referenced
How to Read a Book, Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren
Encyclopedia of World Biography
UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
West’s Encyclopedia of American Law
Europe 1789 to 1914
Encyclopedia of Science, Technology and Ethics
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
Philosophy: 100 Essential Thinkers, Philip Stokes
The Great Philosophers: The Lives and Ideas of History’s Greatest Thinkers, Stephen Law
Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
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Mentor Yourself: Success Lessons from John Stuart Mill, English Philosopher and Economist http://t.co/IBHwSpjd