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John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 - 7 May 1873), usually cited as J. S. Mill, was a British philosopher, political economist, and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to social theory, political theory, and political economy. Dubbed "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century," Mill's conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state and social control.nMill was a proponent of utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed by his predecessor Jeremy Bentham. He contributed to the investigation of scientific methodology, though his knowledge of the topic was based on the writings of others, notably William Whewell, John Herschel, and Auguste Comte, and research carried out for Mill by Alexander Bain. Mill was also the godfather to the philosopher Bertrand Russell.nA member of the Liberal Party and author of the early feminist work The Subjection of Women, he was also the second Member of Parliament to call for women's suffrage after Henry Hunt in 1832. Between the years 1865 and 1868 Mill served as Lord Rector of the University of St. Andrews. During the same period, 1865-68, he was a Member of Parliament for City and Westminster. In 1866, Mill became the first person in the history of Parliament to call for women to be given the right to vote, vigorously defending this position in subsequent debate. Mill became a strong advocate of such social reforms as labour unions and farm cooperatives. In Considerations on Representative Government, Mill called for various reforms of Parliament and voting, especially proportional representation, the single transferable vote, and the extension of suffrage. In April 1868, Mill favoured in a Commons debate the retention of capital punishment for such crimes as aggravated murder; he termed its abolition "an effeminacy in the general mind of the country."
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Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926), Harvard University's longest-serving president. Also known as "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf," it represented Eliot's belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf.nnVolume XXV contains works by two great 19th-century writers: On Liberty, the greatest work from British political philosopher JOHN STUART MILL (1806-1873), often mentioned in the same breath with the Communist Manifesto; and his 1873 autobiography, in which Mill reveals how his life was inextricably connected to that of his father, Scottish philosopher James Mill. And from Mill's close friend, Scottish essayist THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881): the 1831 essay "Characteristics," a critique of Romanticism; "Inaugural Address at Edinburgh," from 1866, a fascinating and telling summary of his own intellectual history; and an 1838 piece, "Sir Walter Scott," that explains the ethical rather than aesthetic foundations of his literary criticism.nnEnglish philosopher and politician JOHN STUART MILL (1806-1873) served as an administrator in the East Indian Company from 1823 to 1858, and as a member of parliament from 1865 to 1868. Among his essays on a wide range of political and social thought are Principles of Political Economy (1848), Considerations on Representative Government (1861), Utilitarianism (1863), and The Subjection of Women (1869).
