GREAT THINKERS John Stuart Mill

Commentary

[in chronological order]

Starting with Mill by John Fitzpatrck

- Fitzpatrick, John R. Starting with Mill. London: Continuum, 2010.

This book is a general, introductory overview of Mill’s thought for beginning students of his work. From the publisher: “Covering all the key concepts of Mill’s work, Starting with Mill provides an accessible introduction to the ideas of… More

Why Read Mill Today? by John Skorupski

- Skorupski, John. Why Read Mill Today? London: Routledge, 2006.  

From the publisher: “John Stuart Mill is one of the greatest thinkers of the nineteenth century. But does he have anything to teach us today? His deep concern for freedom of the individual is thought by some to be outdated and inadequate to the cultural… More

The Blackwell Guide to Mill’s Utilitarianism

- West, Henry R., ed., The Blackwell Guide to Mill's Utilitarianism, Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.

From the publisher: Contains the complete text of Utilitarianism and twelve related essays. Essays cover the background to Mill’s classic essay, analyses of the arguments, and contemporary debates within the utilitarian tradition. Also includes a case study… More

John Stuart Mill: A Biography

- Capaldi, Nicholas. John Stuart Mill: A Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

From the publisher: Nicholas Capaldi’s biography of John Stuart Mill traces the ways in which Mill’s many endeavors are related and explores the significance of his contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, social and political… More

John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

- Smith, G. W., “John Stuart Mill, On Liberty.” In J. J. E. Gracia, G. M. Reichberg, and B. M. Schumacher, eds., The Classics of Western Philosophy: A Reader's Guide, Oxford: Blackwell, 2003, pp. 395-404.

The Classics of Western Philosophy brings together 61 essays on classic texts ranging from Ancient Greece to the twentieth century. Surveying the history of philosophy, the book focuses on historical texts rather than historical figures and covers the entire… More

Mill on Democracy: From the Athenian Polis to Representative Government

- Urbinati, Nadia. Mill On Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.

From the publisher: Despite John Stuart Mill’s widely respected contributions to philosophy and political economy, his work on political philosophy has received a much more mixed response. Some critics have even charged that Mill’s liberalism was… More

The Cambridge Companion to John Stuart Mill

- Skorupski, John, ed. The Cambridge Companion to John Stuart Mill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

From the publisher: “John Stuart Mill was one of the greatest thinkers of the nineteenth century. His impact on modern culture and thought has been immense, and his continuing importance for contemporary philosophy and social thought is widely… More

Mill’s On Liberty: Critical Essays

- Dworkin, Gerald, ed. Mill's On Liberty: Critical Essays. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997.

A collection of critical essays on the topic of Mill’s seminal essay, edited by Gerald Dworkin. Essays include: “Mill and Milquetoast,” by David Lewis “John Stuart Mill and the Harm of Pornography,” by David Dyzenhaus “Mill… More

Mill’s Utilitarianism: Critical Essays

- Lyons, David, ed. Mill's Utilitarianism: Critical Essays. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997.

From the publisher: John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism continues to serve as a rich source of moral and theoretical insight. This collection of recent articles by top scholars offers fresh interpretations of Mill’s ideas about happiness, moral… More

Mill on Liberty: A Defense

- Gray, John. Mill on Liberty: A Defense, 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 1996.

From the publisher: Mill on Liberty was first published in 1983 and has become a classic of Mill commentary. The second edition reproduces the text of the first in full, and in paperback for the first time. To this, John Gray adds an extensive postscript… More

Mill’s Deliberative Utilitarianism

- Brink, David O. “Mill's Deliberative Utilitarianism.” In Philosophy & Public Affairs 21(1992): 67-103.

Excerpt: Mill can be shown to reject hedonism consistently; instead, he defends (consistently) a conception of human happiness whose dominant component consists in the exercise of one’s rational capacities. This deliberative conception of happiness not… More

Aristocratic Liberalism: The Social and Political Thought of Jacob Burckhardt, John Stuart Mill, and Alexis de Tocqueville

- Kahan, Alan S. Aristocratic Liberalism: The Social and Political Thought of Jacob Burkhardt, John Stuart Mill, and Alexis de Toqueville. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

“Liberalism” is widely used to describe a variety of social and political ideas, but has been an especially difficult concept for historians and political scientists to define. Burckhardt, Mill, and Tocqueville define one type of liberal thought.… More

Science and British Liberalism: Locke, Bentham, Mill and Popper

- Jacobs, Struan. Science and British Liberalism: Locke, Bentham, Mill and Popper. Avebury: Aldershot, 1991.

From the publisher: British liberal philosophy is widely regarded as a tradition that has been shaped by science and philosophy of science. Through detailed study of writings by Locke, Bentham, Mill, and Popper on epistemology, politics and related subjects,… More

The Liberal Self: John Stuart Mill’s Moral and Political Philosophy

- Donner, Wendy. The Liberal Self: John Stuart Mill's Moral and Political Philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.

From the publisher: Wendy Donner contends here that recent commentators on John Stuart Mill’s thought have focused on his notions of right and obligation and have not paid as much attention to his notion of the good. Mill, she maintains, rejects the… More

Liberal Utilitarianism

- Riley, Jonathan.  Liberal Utilitarianism: Social Choice Theory and J.S. Mill's Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

From the publisher: This is a book about liberal democratic values and their implications for the design of political institutions. Its distinctive feature is the use of some simple mathematical techniques (known as social choice theory) to clarify and defend… More

The Economics of John Stuart Mill

- Hollander, Samuel. The Economics of John Stuart Mill, 2 vols. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985.

From the publisher: J.S. Mill plays a central role in the development of classical political economy in the nineteenth century. Hollander follows the course of that development over fifty years of Mill’s career, from the death of David Ricardo in 1823… More

John Stuart Mill and the Pursuit of Virtue

- Semmel, Bernard. John Stuart Mill and the Pursuit of Virtue. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984.

From the publisher: This essay provides a fresh way of understanding and linking Mill’s most characteristics opinions. The author explores Mill’s view of the relationship between the sexes and the place of necessity in history, and examines… More

Happiness, Justice and Freedom: The Moral and Political Philosophy of John Stuart Mill

- Berger, Fred. Happiness, Justice and Freedom: The Moral and Political Philosophy of John Stuart Mill. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.

The author argues that Mill’s writing are united by a more cohesive set of doctrines than has previously been recognized. He contends that this allows Mill to provide a powerful defence of utilitarianism and political liberalism.

That Noble Science of Politics: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Intellectual History

- Burrow, John, and Stefan Collini and Donald Winch.  That Noble Science of Politics: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Intellectual History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

From the publisher: In this unusual and important work, three well-known historians of ideas examine the diverse forms taken in nineteenth-century Britain by the aspiration to develop what was then known as a ‘science of politics’. This aspiration… More

The Morality of Freedom

- Raz, Joseph. The Morality of Freedom. Oxford: University of Oxford Press, 1983.

From the publisher: Ranging over central issues of morals and politics and the nature of freedom and authority, this study examines the role of value-neutrality, rights, equality, and the prevention of harm in the liberal tradition, and relates them to… More

Democracy and Liberty in Mill’s Theory of Government

- Arneson, Richard J. “Democracy and Liberty in Mill's Theory of Government.” In Journal of the History of Philosophy, 20 (1982): 43-64.

Excerpt: John Stuart Mill’s theory of government is of a piece with the rest of his philosophy: intelligent, eclectic, carefully modulated, somewhat recalcitrant to systematization. Seizing on this last feature, critics of Mill allege that his… More

Mill versus Paternalism

- Arneson, Richard J. “Mill versus Paternalism.” In Ethics 90 (1980): 470-89.

Excerpt: Recent discussions of paternalism have tended toward brusque dismissal of J. S. Mill’s classic opinion on the topic. Still more recent discussions have tended toward carefully considered rejection or hedging of Mill’s “one very… More

Women in Western Political Philosophy

- Okin, Susan. Women in Western Political Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979.

From the publisher: In this pathbreaking study of the works of Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, and Mill, Susan Moller Okin turns to the tradition of political philosophy that pervades Western culture and its institutions to understand why the gap between formal… More

John Stuart Mill and Representative Government

- Thompson, Dennis. John Stuart Mill and Representative Government. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976.

Although Mill regarded Considerations on Representative Government as a mature statement of his theory of democracy, critics have tended to treat it less seriously than most of his other major works. Dennis Thompson argues that this neglect has led to… More

On Liberty and Liberalism: The Case of John Stuart Mill

- Himmelfarb, Gertrude. On Liberty and Liberalism: The Case of John Stuart Mill. New York: Knopf, 1974.

From the publisher: If our politics is rife with contradictions and dead ends, as many today believe, then the intellectual origins of this crisis may be found in the key document of modern political thought: John Stuart Mill’s classic On Liberty. In… More

J.S. Mill

- Ryan, Alan. J. S. Mill. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974.

In this book the author contributes to the Routledge series of author guides to render full justice to the range of Mill’s achievements. He provides an introductory guide to his most important and best known writings including Autobiography, A System of… More

The Improvement of Mankind

- Robson, John M. The Improvement of Mankind. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968.

John M. Robson, compiler of the Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, provides an account of the unity underlying the writings of John Stuart Mill. The work shows the continuities and differences between Mill and his predecessors, the Philosophical Radicals.

“John Stuart Mill” by Henry Magid

- Magid, Henry M. “John Stuart Mill.” In History of Political Philosophy, edited by Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey, 679–696. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963.

A one-essay, comprehensive overview of Mill’s political philosophy, discussing his method, moral philosophy, philosophy of history, theories of social progress, and writings on representative government. Sections include: I. Method in Political… More

The English Utilitarians

- Plamenatz, John. The English Utilitarians. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1949.

John Plamenatz provides a classic study of the English doctrine of utilitarianism. Chapters are devoted to important figures in the movement such as Hume, Bentham, James Mill, and John Stuart Mill. The treatment addresses the philosophical and psychological… More

The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism

- Halevy, Elie. The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism. Trans. M. Morris, with preface by A. D. Lindsay, London: Faber and Faber, 1934.

This is still one of the best discussions of the 19th century Utilitarian movement in England, covering the rise of the Benthamites and the conflict between the growing economic philosophy and older philosophies that emphasized human and social values. Halevy… More

The Methods of Ethics

- Sidgwick, Henry. The Methods of Ethics. 7^th ed., London: Macmillan, 1907.

First published in 1874 by the English philosopher Henry Sidgwick,  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy indicates that The Methods of Ethics “in many ways marked the culmination of the classical utilitarian tradition.”  John Rawls, writing… More

The Philosophical Theory of the State

- Bosanquet, Bernard. Philosophical Theory of the State. London: Macmillan, 1889.

Excerpt: “The same point may be further insisted on by examining the main ideas of Mill’s “Liberty,” without by any means professing to give a full account of Mill’s opinions on the relation of individuals to society. What indeed is… More

John Stuart Mill: A Criticism with Personal Recollections

- Bain, A. John Stuart Mill: A Criticism with Personal Recollections. London: Longmans, 1882.

Excerpt: In the present work, I do not propose to give the complete biography of John Stuart Mill. My chief object is to examine fully his writings and character; in doing which, I have drawn freely upon my personal recollections of the second half of his… More

Ethical Studies

- Bradley, Francis Herbert. Ethical Studies. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1876.

F.H. Bradley presents his criticism to the utilitarianism of Mill and Sidgwick. Bradley argues for a Hegelian position that emphasizes the importance of social relations.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity by James Fitzjames Stephen

- Stephen, James Fitzjames. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity [1874]. Ed. Stuart D. Warner. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1993.

One of the most cogent and forceful critiques of J.S. Mill’s On Liberty. Written only 15 years after On Liberty‘s publication, Stephen dissects the elements of Mill’s theory that were the most novel for his time, especially, though not… More

History of the Inductive Sciences

- Whewell, W. History of the Inductive Sciences. 3 vols. London: J. Parker, 1837.

Excerpt: It is my purpose to write the history of some of the most important of the physical sciences, from the earliest to the most recent periods. I shall thus have to trace some of the most remarkable branches of human knowledge,from their first germ to… More