"Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign."

— John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill Tee

"Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign."

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Era: Modern

Region: European

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill

1806 – 1873
Modern European

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) was a British philosopher, political economist, and civil servant who is widely considered the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century. He received an extraordinarily intensive education from his father, beginning Greek at age three and Latin at eight—an upbringing that led to a mental crisis at age twenty. His recovery through poetry and feeling shaped his mature outlook. In Utilitarianism (1863), he refined Bentham's "greatest happiness" principle by introducing a qualitative distinction among pleasures, arguing that it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. His On Liberty (1859) articulated a passionate defense of individual freedom and the harm principle—that the only legitimate reason to restrict individual action is to prevent harm to others. He was also a pioneering advocate for women's rights; The Subjection of Women (1869) argued forcefully for complete equality between the sexes. As a member of Parliament, he became the first person in that body's history to call for women's suffrage.

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