Autobiography of John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill

May 2009 · The Floating Press

About this ebook

John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873) was a great liberal thinker of the nineteenth century, a noted philosopher, political theorist, and Member of Parliament. Mill was given a disciplined upbringing, his father deliberately shielding him from other children with the express aim of creating a philosophical genius to carry the mantle of utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham and in which Mill went on to develop his own conception. The pressure of his intensive study affected Mill's mental health and he had a nervous breakdown at twenty. As Mill writes in chapter five of his autobiography, this was triggered by the huge physical and mental strain of his studies suppressing his natural childhood feelings.

About the author

John Stuart Mill, Classical economist, was born in 1806. His father was the Ricardian economist, James Mill. John Stuart Mill's writings on economics and philosophy were prodigious. His "Principles of Political Economy, With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy," published in 1848, was the leading economics textbook of the English-speaking world during the second half of the 19th century. Some of Mill's other works include "Considerations on Representative Government," "Auguste Comte and Positivism," "The Subjection of Women," and "Three Essays on Religion." John Mill died in 1873.