PHILOSOPHERS - JOHN STUART MILL

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>JOHN STUART MILL</FONT><BR> (1806-1873)</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <BLOCKQUOTE>"Over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign... the only purpose for which power can be rightly exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others."<P> (On Liberty)</BLOCKQUOTE> A noted <A HREF="../t03/g012.html" TARGET="_top">empiricist</A> and <A HREF="../t03/g059.html" TARGET="_top">utilitarian</A>, John Stuart Mill became a notable defender of individual liberty. The son of James Mill, a Scottish historian and philosopher, he was born in London and educated by his father. Like his father, he worked for the East India Company. The book which established him as a philosopher was his "System of Logic", published in 1843. This strongly condemns intuitionism, claiming that only in induction is there real progress of thought.<P> Mills was anxious to establish a correct theory of scientific explanation, human action and social science, in order to provide a basis for rational <A HREF="../t03/g017.html" TARGET="_top">ethics</A>. His "Autobiography" attributes many of his more liberal ideas to Mrs Harriet Taylor, whom he met in 1830 and married after her husband died in 1851. His famous defence of individual liberty, "On Liberty", was written the year after her death in 1858. Government and the majority have no right to interfere with the liberty of individuals whose actions do no injury to others. Mill was also an early champion of women's rights and, while serving as an independent Member of Parliament from 1865 to 1868, he proposed votes for women as an amendment to Disraeli's Franchise Bill. Mill's system of ethics was utilitarian. "Conduciveness to the happiness of mankind" was the basic principle to which all rules of practice should conform. State intervention for the good of the many was acceptable. He remained a cautious democrat, endorsing the idea of universal suffrage, but proposing a system of plural voting in which character and education determined the number of votes individuals could cast. <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>