John Stuart Mill (May 20, 1806 - May 8, 1873), 
aka JS Mill, an English philosopher and political economist, was 
the most influential liberal thinker of the 19th century. He was 
an advocate of utilitarianism, the ethical theory first proposed 
by his godfather Jeremy Bentham.

Biography

John Stuart Mill was born in Pentonville, London, the eldest son 
of James Mill. Mill was educated by his father, with the advice 
and assistance of Jeremy Bentham and Francis Place. He was given 
an extremely rigorous upbringing, and was deliberately shielded 
from association with boys his own age. His father, a follower 
of Bentham and an adherent of associationism, had as his explicit 
aim to create a genius intellect that would carry on the cause of 
utilitarianism and its implementation after he and Bentham were 
dead.

His feats as a child were exceptional; at the age of three he was 
taught the Greek alphabet and long lists of Greek words with their 
English equivalents. By the age of eight he had read Aesop's 
Fables, Xenophon's Anabasis, and the whole of Herodotus, and was 
acquainted with Lucian, Diogenes Laërtius, Isocrates and six 
dialogues of Plato (see his Autobiography). He had also read a 
great deal of history in English and had been taught arithmetic.

A contemporary record of Mill's studies from eight to thirteen 
is published in Bain's sketch of his life. It suggests that his 
autobiography rather understates the amount of work done. At the 
age of eight he began learning Latin, Euclid, and algebra, and 
was appointed schoolmaster to the younger children of the family. 
His main reading was still history, but he went through all the 
Latin and Greek authors commonly read in the schools and 
universities at the time. He was not taught to compose either in 
Latin or in Greek, and he was never an exact scholar; it was for 
the subject matter that he was required to read, and by the age 
of ten he could read Plato and Demosthenes with ease. His 
father's History of India was published in 1818; immediately 
thereafter, about the age of twelve, John began a thorough study 
of the scholastic logic, at the same time reading Aristotle's 
logical treatises in the original language. In the following year 
he was introduced to political economy and studied Adam Smith and 
David Ricardo with his father--ultimately completing their 
classical economic view of factors of production.

Mill worked for the British East India Company, but he was also 
a Liberal member of Parliament. Mill advocated easing the burdens 
on Ireland, and basically worked for what he considered reason. 
In Considerations on Representative Government Mill called for 
various reforms of Parliament and voting, especially proportional 
representation and the extension of suffrage.

In 1851 Mill married Harriet Taylor after 21 years of friendship. 
Taylor was a signficant influence on Mills's work and ideas during 
both friendship and marriage. His relationship with Harriet Taylor 
inspired Mill's advocacy of women's rights.


Work

One foundational book on the concept of liberty was On Liberty, 
about the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately 
exercised by society over the individual. One argument that Mill 
formed was the harm principle, that is, people should be free to 
engage in whatever behavior they wish as long as it does not 
harm others.

John Stuart Mill only speaks of negative freedom in On Liberty, 
a concept formed and named by Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997). Isaiah 
Berlin suggests that negative freedom is an absence or lack of 
impediments, obstacles or coercion. This is in contrast with his 
other idea of positive freedom, a capacity for behavior, and the 
presence of conditions for freedom, be they material resources, 
a level of enlightenment, or the opportunity for political 
participation.

Thus Mill argued that it is Government's role only to remove the 
barriers, such as laws, to behaviors that do not harm others.

Mill's magnum opus was his A System of Logic, which went through 
several editions. There he evaluates Aristotle's categories and 
gives his own system. He gives his theory of terms and 
propositions and focuses on the inductive process. William 
Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences (1837) was a chief 
influence.

The reputation of this work is largely due to his analysis of 
inductive proof, in contrast to Aristotle's syllogisms, which 
are deductive. Mill formulates five methods of induction -- the 
method of agreement, the method of difference, the joint or 
double method of agreement and difference, the method of 
residues, and that of concomitant variations. The common feature 
of these methods, the one real method of scientific inquiry, is 
that of elimination. All the other methods are thus subordinate 
to the method of difference.


Bibliography

    * (1843) A System of Logic
    * (1848) Principles of Political Economy
    * (1859) On Liberty
    * (1861) Utilitarianism
    * (1869) The Subjection of Women
    * (1873) Autobiography