John Stuart Mill was born in London in 1806 and died in Avignon in 1873. He is generally considered to have been the most important British philosopher of the nineteenth century. His powerful defences of empiricist, liberal and utilitarian positions were hugely influential during his lifetime, and set the terms for most subsequent debate. Mill’s advocacy of radical causes (including, most notably, the extension of the parliamentary franchise to women) made him, by his death, a household name even amongst people who had never read his books. Although Mill’s reputation suffered a temporary eclipse around the turn of the twentieth century, he currently stands high in the ranks of the British empiricists for his writings on logic

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First published 04 October 2003

Citation: Scarre, G. F.. "John Stuart Mill". The Literary Encyclopedia. 4 October 2003.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3113, accessed 9 February 2010.]