The Bi-centennial Anniversary of John Stuart Mill

Radically democratic, yet critical of democracy; A firm believer in universal human rights, individual liberty and free enterprise, yet skeptical of capitalism and an advocate of considerable state intervention; John Stuart Mill was a highly enigmatic thinker, whose tremendous intellectual output continues to influence the fields of philosophy, political science, economics and jurisprudence to this day.

J. S. Mill was born in London on May 20th, 1806, as the son of James Mill, a prolific writer and thinker, and brought up under the tutelage of their family friend, Jeremy Bentham, both of whom were leading proponents of Utilitarianism, a radical democratic philosophy of the time.

Although J.S. Mill initially followed in their footsteps, he soon began to question the outlook of this philosophy and started to formulate his own philosophy of life. While he shared the utilitarian sentiments on the importance of rational thinking, he did not share their view of humans as purely rational beings that only act out of self-interest, searching pleasure and avoiding pain. Furthermore, he could not reconcile the utilitarian approval of anything that promotes the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, with his own deep conviction in individual liberty.

He was not only a vociferous advocate of universal suffrage (the right for all women and men to vote); but he was equally concerned that radical democracy and a pursuit of the “greater good” would lead to serious infringements on the equally universal rights of the individual. He explained this opposition to the “Tyranny of the Majority” in On Liberty (1859), the book for which he is probably best remembered today. “The majority, or those who succeed in making themselves accepted as the majority, (...) may desire to oppress a part of their number; and precautions are as much needed against this, as any other abuse of power”.

In many ways, the life and work of Mill provides a mirror to the great societal changes that were taking place in the nineteenth century, and it is important to try to understand him from this rather than from a contemporary perspective. While he rebelled against the conservative traditionalism of the society in which he was living, he still shared some of its beliefs and prejudices. For instance, when he overrides his own principle of non-interference with individual liberty, with the words that “despotism is a legitimate form of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement, and the means justified by actually effecting that end”, we must remember that he is merely expressing the norms of Victorian Britain.

In fact, Mill’s ideas were very progressive for his times. He firmly believed in equal rights for all citizens and he was one of the first to advocate gender equality, with his publication of the Emancipation of Women (1851), the Subjection of Women (1869), and other essays that he co-wrote with his wife, Harriet Taylor Mill, in the latter part of his life.

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