John Stuart Mill Essay -- essays research papers

Who is John Stuart Mill? John Stuart Mill was born on May 20, 1806, in London, England. He was mostly known for his radical views. For example, he preached sexual equality, divorce, universal suffrage, free speech, and proportional representation. He had many works of writings such as Principles of Political Economy, On Liberty, The Subjections of Women, and the Three Essays of Religion: Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  John Mill was the eldest son of James Mill who was a philosopher, economist and a senior official in the East India Company. James educated John when he was young. His father taught him discipline, Greek at the age of three, history, languages, calculus, logic, political economy, geography, psychology, and rhetoric. At the age of twelve he was a competent logician and by the age of sixteen a well trained economist. (http://www.utilitarianism.com/jsmill.htm) His father believed that teaching children while they were young would have an ever lasting effect on them. The purpose of this push of education at a young age is because James thought that teaching John would have the chance of becoming a prophet of the utilitarian gospel. John had to eventually take his learning from his father and teach his eight younger brother and sisters the same material.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Around the age of sixteen, John created a Utilitarian Society, which had the goal of bringing happiness to the greatest number of people, where he was one of a â€Å"small knot of young men† who practiced his father’s political and philosophical views. (http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/m/milljs.htm) At the age of twenty-one he suffered a mental breakdown, which resulted from severe strain from his earlier years. In his own autobiography, which was later published after his death, he wrote, that he was in a â€Å"dull state of nerves†; and that he had lost his charm. He said he had â€Å"no delight in virtue, or the general good, but also just as little in anything else.† After several months he realized that his emotions where not dried up and â€Å"the cloud gradually drew off.† In 1823 John took a clerkship position in the Examiner’s Office at the East India Company. Later he eventually headed that department. Harriet Tay lor who was a close friend with John co-wrote several pieces of work with him. They met in 1830 and she was the mother of t... ...em. This is what he is trying to bring up to action of treating women with respect and the same as men treat other men. He concludes chapter one by stating, â€Å"But, in that case, all that has been done in the modern world to relate that chain on the minds of women, has been a mistake. They never should have been allowed to receive a literary education. Women who read, much more women who write, are, in the existing constitution of things, a contradiction and a disturbing element: and it was wrong to bring women up with any acquirements but those of an odalisque, or of a domestic servant.† (The Longman Anthology, pg. 527) In conclusion, He was mostly known for his radical views. Principles of Political Economy, On Liberty, The Subjections of Women, and the Three Essays of Religion: Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism, where just some of the many works that he published to show the world that everything is not always perfect and intact. He showed that you could express your mind and that this is the new era of thinking. His writings on women’s rights to the economy where way ahead of his time. It is true that John Stuart Mill’s is not known well enough today as he should be.