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On Liberty

John Stuart Mill is one of the few indisputably classic authors in the history of political thought. On Liberty, first published in 1851, has become celebrated as the most powerful defense of the freedom of the individual and it is now widely regarded as the most important theoretical foundation for Liberalism as a political creed. Similarly, his The Subjection of Women, a powerful indictment of the political, social, and economic position of women, has become one of the cardinal documents of modern feminism. This edition brings together these two classic texts, plus Mill's posthumous Chapters on Socialism, his somewhat neglected examination of the strengths and weaknesses of various forms of Socialism. The Editor's substantial Introduction places these three works in the context both of Mill's life and of nineteenth-century intellectual and political history, and assesses their continuing relevance.

Annotation:
ON LIBERTY, written in 1859, is Mill's formulation for a liberal, democratic, and egalitarian state. It's influence on contemporary politics can not be understated.

Author Bio

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill's unorthodox education, a strict and rigorous tutorial program administered by his father James, had him reading Greek by the age of 3, economics by 11, and the finer points of Aristotelian logic by 12. At 16, he was so moved by the Utilitarian doctrine of Jeremy Bentham--who was a close friend of the Mills--that he "now had opinions; a creed, a doctrine, a philosophy...," one which young Mill defended in a Utilitarian Society that he founded in 1822. Yet, despite his acuity, he did not attend university nor did he ever hold a university position. Instead, with the aid of his father, Mill took a post as a clerk at the British East India Company in 1923, where he remained and in 1956 was promoted to the head of office. In this capacity, Mill found he could dedicate his leisure time to Utilitarianism, editing Bentham's five-volume RATIONALE OF EVIDENCE in 1825. Thus his reputation as a forceful thinker began to grow. However, at the age of 21, Mill fell into something of a personal crisis, where the doctrines of Bentham's Utilitarianism lost the force of their attraction for him. It was during this period that Mill discovered Coleridge and Wordsworth, opening himself to the human spirit present in works of literature--something which Bentham was inherently opposed to. This new perspective did not drive him from philosophy, however. Rather, Mill used it to inform his interpretation of Utilitarianism and to break out from under Bentham's rather narrow umbrella. With renewed vigor, Mill published many and varied articles in publications such as The Westminster Review and The London Review, on topics as diverse as politics, economics, logic, and equality of the sexes. Many of these articles he co-wrote with his wife, Harriet Taylor, who aided Mill in the formulation of his humanitarian Utilitarianism. Mill's most lasting work, ON LIBERTY, was published in 1859; his reformulation of the Benthamite creed and his contribution to political and economic philosophy continues to influence readers into the twenty-first century.