Mill, John Stuart

Mill, John Stuart

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) was born in London on May 20. The son of the philosopher James Mill (1773–1836) and the godson of the philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). John Stuart Mill was the most influential British philosopher of the nineteenth century, which saw science and technology transform society as significant contributions were made in metaphysics, logic, the philosophy of science, ethics, social and political philosophy, economics, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of education. The System of Logic(1843) and the Principles of Political Economy (1848) became canonical textbooks in their fields. Mill died on May 8 in Avignon, France.

Logic

Mill understood his work in technical philosophy as providing a foundation for his social and political philosophy. The purpose of the discussion of the origins of knowledge in the System of Logic is to prepare the ground for the social sciences, and the discussion of the social sciences provides the grounds for Mill's moral, political, and economic views.

The first five books of the Logic are largely polemical, attacking the philosophical position known as intuitionism, which in the nineteenth century had served as the basis for political conservatism. Intuitionism takes the view that there are innate truths, including moral truths.

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