Major Works

• On Liberty (1859)

  - Mill, J. S. On Liberty. In The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, edited by John M. Robson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1963–.
  Excerpt: The subject of this Essay is not the so-called Liberty of the Will, so unfortunately opposed to the misnamed doctrine of Philosophical Necessity; but Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by… More

• Considerations on Representative Government (1861)

  - Mill, J. S. Considerations on Representative Government. In The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, edited by John M. Robson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1963–.
  Excerpt: It seems to me, however, from various indications, and from none more than the recent debates on Reform of Parliament, that both Conservatives and Liberals (if I may continue to call them what they still call themselves) have lost confidence in the… More

Commentary

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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.

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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 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

• 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

• 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

Multimedia

• In Our Time: Mill

  - Bragg, Melvyn. "In Our Time: Mill", radio panel discussion, BBC4, 18 May, 2006.
  From website: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great nineteenth century political philosopher John Stuart Mill. He believed that, ‘The true philosophy is the marriage of poetry and logic’. He was one of the first thinkers to argue that a social… More

• Mill: Utilitarianism and Liberty

  - Szelényi, Iván. "Mill: Utilitarianism and Liberty," lecture delivered at Yale University, Fall, 2009.
  Lecture 8 in Yale Open Courses course SOCY 151: Foundations of Modern Social Theory. From website: John Stuart Mill made important and influential amendments to Bentham’s ideas of utilitarianism. Perhaps most influentially, Mill states that there are… More

• The Neoclassical Synthesis of Rights and Utility

  - Shapiro, Ian. "The Neoclassical Synthesis of Rights and Utility," lecture delivered at Yale University, Spring, 2010.
  Lecture 7 in Yale Open Courses PLSC 118: The Moral Foundations of Politics Overview from website: John Stuart Mill’s synthesis rights and utility follows naturally in the vein of neoclassical utilitarianism, and it attempts to compensate for many of the… More