John Stuart Mill Liberty Analysis

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“John Stuart Mill and Liberty”

John Stuart Mill was one of the leading philosophers in the Victorian Age of England. Mill believed in Liberalism where society was best served by the maximum number of people being free with minimal government. He was born into a comfortable home in London in 1806 in a time when the Industrial Revolution was transforming England. Mill had no formal education and practiced no religion but was was schooled at home in order to become a perfect utilitarian. This led Mill to become very independent and get his first job as a clerk by the age of 17. He was known as a radical reformer, and suffered through a depression at the age of 20 which he bounced back by reading poetry. His ideas were influenced by his desire to combine the virtues of rationalism and
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Prior to reading this, I had no knowledge of John Stuart Mill and as I was reading, I started to realize that a lot of his beliefs and ideas are ones that are still around today. The article was well written and easy and understandable to read and gave some great insight on a very influential philosopher. The whole relationship that he had with Harriet Taylor was pretty interesting, and the fact that she had such a large influence in his writings was interesting. This was still a time when men were superior to women, and it seems as if Taylor “wore the pants” in their marriage. She was able to get him to delete the criticisms on Socialism and Communism so she obviously had influence. From reading the article, it seems that John Stuart Mill was a very interesting man who had very logical beliefs that I would agree with, and I think it is safe to say that he influenced many future philosophers. I do think a better title could have been used, because the given title is very dull and boring, but all in all, it was a very informative article that gave me necessary information on what appears to be a very influential man in

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