John Stuart Mill by Will Nelson

Will Nelson
Section 8
First Installment

John Stuart Mill was born in 1806 and was the eldest son of James Mill and Harriet Barrow. Today i will explain a little bit about John Mill's early life, and what guided him to be a exceptional philosopher. John was influenced by utilitarianism, he nevertheless wrote again and again in defense of the importance of the rights of individuals. Mill's main defense was both suffrage for women and equal rights in education. With John's concern on women suffrage, it ended up leading him to writing a quite controversial essay called "The Subjection of Women" (1869) which led people to believe he was proto-feminist. John's work is known to be heavily influenced by his father, because he would always teach John at a young age. Mill started learning Greek at the age of three and Latin at the age of eight, in which his father taught him both. By the age of 14, John was extremely well versed in the Greek and Latin classics; he had also studied world history, logic and mathematics; and had also mastered the basics of economic theory, all of which was part of his father's plan to make John a young proponent of the views of the philosophical radicals. By John's late teens, he spent countless hours editing Jeremy Bentham's manuscripts, and then included himself into the work of the philosophic radicals, all while still being guided by his father. In 1823, his father secured him a junior position in the East India Company, and John immediately started raising in the ranks, and eventually taking his father's position of chief examiner. All of this is just a start of what Mill has done for the philosophy world. If you would like to read further more in depth of John, take a look at this link.

http://www.biography.com/people/john-stuart-mill-9408210