John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), was the leading British philosopher of the nineteenth century. An exponent and developer of the empiricism of John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume, and of the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham, he made major contributions to economics and political philosophy and is generally considered to be the founder of British Liberalism.

Biography

John Stuart Mill was the eldest son of James Mill, a writer, philosopher and follower of Jeremy Bentham. He was intensively educated by his father, receiving childhood instruction in Greek, Latin, and political economy From an early age he was an avid reader of history, and as a teenager he acquired a profound understanding of logic and became familiar with the teachings of Adam Smith and David Ricardo. At the age of 14 he began a year's stay with a friend of his father's in France, where he made the acquaintance of the economist Jean-Baptiste Say and on his return he turned his attention to the works of John Locke and Jeremy Bentham and became a convinced utilitarian.