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John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism and On Liberty

Philosophy asks big questions in careful steps. This page is a short introduction to John Stuart Mill and two of his best known books. It is general education. It is not advice for your own situation, and it is not therapy. It is a short orientation and does not settle scholarly debates.

Who he was

John Stuart Mill (1806-73) was, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the most influential English language philosopher of the nineteenth century. He was a naturalist, a utilitarian and a liberal. His most important works include System of Logic (1843), On Liberty (1859), Utilitarianism (1861) and An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy (1865).

Utilitarianism

Mill holds that "happiness is the sole end of human action, and the promotion of it the test by which to judge of all human conduct." He writes that "By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain."

Mill departs from the account of Jeremy Bentham. Bentham held that two experiences with equal quantities of pleasure are equally valuable. Mill argues that quality as well as quantity matters in estimating pleasures: some pleasures are of a higher quality than others.

On Liberty

Mill worried that in increasingly democratic societies the majority could threaten the individual. Freedom was at risk from a newly empowered many as well as from an absolute monarch. The restrictions he had in mind included legal penalties and also "the moral coercion of public opinion." He worried about stifling conformism in thought, character and action.

On Liberty announces its aim as asserting "one very simple principle": that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that, as with all of Mill's practical philosophy, the argument for this is utilitarian.

Sources

This page draws on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry "John Stuart Mill" (first published Aug 25, 2016) at plato.stanford.edu. The link goes to the organization's own site.

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