The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘John Stuart Mill’

This is what we talked about on The Invisible Mentor Blog this week: Divergent by Veronica Roth, John Stuart Mill, Philosopher and Economist, and Miranda Vande Kuyt, career development professional.

John-stuart-mill 1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Adventures in Learning

Have you ever been at a cocktail party and didn’t have much to contribute to the conversation? If you read broadly, and not only just books, you will always have something to talk about and contribute to the conversation.

Why You Must Read Broadly – Tip 1 

Booked for Mentoring

Divergent by Veronica Roth is set in Dystopian Chicago where the residents are from five factions – Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, Amity and Dauntless – which are the traits that best describe and embody them. Residents have to conform to the norms of their factions.

Book Review – Divergent by Veronica Roth 

Wisdom of Life Profile

Take John Stuart Mill, he was the most influential British philosopher of the nineteenth century, his books, A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive and Principles of Political Economy became textbooks in their fields. Mill made significant contributions to philosophy, economics, political theory and women’s liberation. While Mill was a Member of Parliament, he was the first representative in Parliament to request the right for women to vote.

Success Lessons from John Stuart Mill, English Philosopher and Economist 

Interviews for Mentoring

This week we featured career development professional Miranda Vande Kuyt. Miranda got to where she is now because she capitalized on the opportunities that came her way. Here are Part I and Part II of Miranda Vande Kuyt’s interview.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

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 and Principles of Political Economy became textbooks in their fields. Mill made significant contributions to philosophy, economics, political theory and women’s liberation. While Mill was a Member of Parliament, he was the first representative in Parliament to request the right for women to vote.

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:

1. Are their similarities between the John Stuart Mill and yourself?
2. What are your five takeaways from the profile?
3. When you think of the person John Stuart Mill, what thoughts immediately come to mind?
4. In what ways can you use the information in your work and life?
5. 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?
6. 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)), six dialogues of Plato (Six Great Dialogues: Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Symposium, The Republic), and considerable history. Before he was twelve years old, he had studied Euclid and algebra, the Greek and Latin poets, and some English poetry. The remarkable thing is that Mill read Greek and Latin texts in the original language.

When he was 12, Mill was introduced to logic in Aristotle’s The Organon and the Latin scholastic manuals on the subject. At 13, he studied political economy, and his notes formed the basis for his father’s Elements of Political Economy. When Mill was 14, he studied under his father’s friends: Law with famous jurist Charles Austin, economics with English political economist David Ricardo. He completed his education himself with Bentham’s treatise on legislation, which to him was akin to a religious revelation. Also from an early age, Mill had read the complete works of Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, and Adam Smith.

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, which was produced in 1863. Mill wrote Essays On Some Unsettled Questions Of Political Economy, which were later explored in Principles of Political Economy in 1848 and The Subjection of Women (1869), and Analysis of the phenomena of the human mind which is a revision and correction of his father’s work which had been published in 1829. Other important works by Mill include, On Liberty and Other Essays (Oxford World’s Classics) (1859), Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform which led to Representative Government (1861). Posthumously, Autobiography (1873), Three Essays on Religion: Nature, the Utility of Religion, Theism (Great Books in Philosophy) (1874), and Chapters on Socialism (1891) were published.

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

Profile of Wisdom – Thomas Carlyle, British Historian, Essayist and Leading Social Critic of Victorian England 

John Stuart Mill Quotes

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

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

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

How tolerant are you? How do you respond to people who are very different from you? I have never thought of tolerance as an idea, but it is among the 50 Ideas You Really Need to Knowthat Ben Dupre included in his book. This made me think that tolerance would be a good idea to explore on The Invisible Mentor and see where it leads. Intolerance has been the root cause of may conflicts in our world, both religious and non-religious. It’s interesting to discover that the debate over the idea of tolerance has been going on for centuries. This demonstrates how important this concept is, and how difficult it is for people to tolerate and accept those who are different. I do not have any answers for you, but I have provided some thoughts for you reflect on.

Image via Wikipedia

Ben Dupre in 50 Genetics Ideas You Really Need to Know (50 Ideas) when discussing the idea of tolerance, talks about the Paradox of Toleration:

“Much of the difficulty concerning the concept of tolerance is caused by a troublesome paradox that lies at its core. Broadly speaking, tolerance is a disposition to put up with with things (or people) of which one disapproves, in situations where one has the capacity to intervene but chooses not to. The disapproval involved can lie anywhere on a spectrum from mild distaste to strong aversion and the level of tolerance is proportionate  to the degree of disapproval…”

According to Voltaire, a French writer, philosopher and playwright, “…I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.” Born in the late 17th century (November 21, 1694 –May 30,1778), Voltaire whose real name was François-Marie Arouet, was a man ahead of his time. An advocate of social reform and civil liberties: freedom of religion and free trade, he used his works to criticize intolerance, and the above quote by Voltaire shows that he understood the idea of tolerance and the importance of freedom of expression.

In Voltaire’s The Philosophical Dictionary, he starts off his essay on Tolerance:

“WHAT is tolerance? it is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly–that is the first law of nature. It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster…”

7 Thoughts on the Idea of Tolerance

1. Pardon each other’s errors; discord is the great ill of mankind; and tolerance is the only remedy for it. (Philosophical Dictionary – Tolerance)
2. Be tolerant of one another, because we are all weak, inconsistent, liable to fickleness and error. (Philosophical Dictionary - Tolerance)
3. Respect human autonomy – the capacity that allows individuals  to make their own choices in life. (On Liberty, John Stuart Mill)
4. People are allowed  to do and think what they like, provided their actions and beliefs do not harm others.
5. It is imperative that human beings should be free to form opinions, and to express their opinions without reserve…Opinions lose their immunity, when the circumstances in which they are expressed are such as to constitute their expression a positive instigation to some mischievous act. (On Liberty, John Stuart Mill)
6. The toleration of those that differ from others in matters of religion is so agreeable to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to the genuine reason of mankind, that it seems monstrous for men to be so blind as not to perceive the necessity and advantage of it in so clear a light. (Letter Concerning Toleration, John Locke)
7. According to the United Nations‘ Declaration of Principles on Tolerance, “Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world’s cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human. It is fostered by knowledge, openness, communication and freedom of thought, conscience,  and belief. Tolerance is harmony in difference…”

Many of the thoughts on tolerance are similar, which helps to emphasize the importance of the concept? What changes can you make at work and home to become more tolerant? Do you agree with the enlightened thinkers – Voltaire, John Locke, and John Stuart Mill on their take on tolerance? If we were more tolerant of each other, would there be less conflicts in the world? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Here is a short YouTube video on the Museum of Tolerance Promotion.

If you cannot view the YouTube video on the Museum of Tolerance Promotion, click here.

Further Readings

Letter Concerning Toleration, John Locke

On Liberty, John Stuart Mill

The Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire

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Related articles

• Toleration vs. Acceptance (gameofroles.wordpress.com)