Historic Humanist Series

John Stewart Mill stands as a bridge between the 18th-century concern for liberty, reason and science, and the 19th-century trend toward empiricism and collectivism. In philosophy, he systematized the utilitarian doctrines of his father and Jeremy Bentham in such works as Utilitarianism (1836), basing knowledge upon human experience and emphasizing human reason. In political economy, Mill advocated those policies that he believed most consistent with individual liberty, and he emphasized that liberty could be threatened as much by social as by political tyranny. He is probably most famous for his essay "On Liberty" (1859). He studied pre-Marxian socialist doctrine, and, although he did not become a socialist, he worked actively for improvement of the conditions of the working people. In Parliament, Mill was considered a radical because he supported such measures as public ownership of natural resources, equality for women, compulsory education, and birth control. His advocacy of women's suffrage in the debates on the Reform Bill of 1867 led to the formation of the suffrage movement.

--Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia