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Monday 1 December 2008

John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand

Mill! thou shouldst be living at this hour

Samuel Brittan

Mill’s father John was a close associate of the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham and himself a prolific writer. This is perhaps more important than the widely known fact that he taught his son to read Greek at the age of three. Another reasonably well-known fact about John Stuart Mill was that he suffered a deep crisis of belief at the age of 20, when he concluded that, even if all the reforms which he advocated could be achieved in an instant, it would not bring him any great joy. He buried himself in the Romantic poets and was also influenced by the prose works of Coleridge.

Once he had got over his mental crisis, Mill returned to the political philosophy of his father and Bentham and tried to give it more content rather than turn it upside- down. Not all the change was improvement. His Utilitarianism remains a student text to this day, but is marred by a priggish distinction between ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ pleasures. While Bentham was content to say that poetry was no better than the childish game of pushpin, Mill was having none of this. His definition of a higher pleasure was one which people who had experience of both kinds of pleasure would in the end prefer. Yet there are adults who have been exposed to classical music but would still prefer a rock or pop concert and if you believe in freedom of choice for adults, as Mill certainly did, there is not a lot more that can be said.

It was fortunate that, like his father before him, he was given a post at the East India Company which did not involve visiting that country and which left his afternoons and evenings free for his own writing. Incidentally Reeves, like most other writers on Mill, says little about the content of Mill’s Indian work and in what direction, if any, he influenced British policy towards the subcontinent.

Mill was also notable for his 28-year-long devotion to Harriet Taylor, who was attractive as well as a blue stocking. Reeves discusses, but cannot solve, the mystery of whether the two had sexual relations before — or for that matter after — her husband’s death when Mill was free to marry her. More interesting is that Mill went so over the top in his praise of Harriet’s intellectual contributions to his work that he created a still unsolved mystery about how extensive they really were.

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