John Stuart Mill Research Paper

Following the rise of the Industrial Revolution is the Victorian Era, typically measured by Queen Victoria’s rule between 1837 and 1901. The period is marked by a shift from rural to urban life as the population sought jobs in more industrialized areas. A population shift such as this is often coupled with widespread social change. Attitudes toward religion began to change, while violence and sex became an aspect of everyday life. With this attitude change brought a movement that continues through this day. The First Wave of Feminism, beginning in the 1850s resulted with more women in the workplace and saw the production of famous works such as A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf. While this step did not grant women total equality,

Mill’s socialist views were cultivated through the duration of his life as he emphasized “individuality, independence, and self-cultivation” (Claeys 122). With “objections to communism… and [a] defense of competition between economic enterprises” (123), Mill remained steadfast in his beliefs throughout his life. His early socialist views are often cited as beginning with his early essays detailing debates between himself, friends, and members of the London Cooperative Society. These debates consist of Mill’s defense of “his own Ricardian economic views against Owenism” (125). A primary point of Mill’s against Owenism is Mill’s support of competition, defending it as “the nature of commerce” (125). Mill’s opinions push toward equality for all, as well, not just women, as he pushes that “society would no longer be divided ‘into the idle and the industrious; when the rule that they who do not work shall not eat, will be applied not to paupers only, but impartially to all’” (129). His push for equality for each member of society grew with the aforementioned debates as his opinions only grew stronger throughout time, ultimately resulting in the production of major political and philosophical pieces that outline his views of

Mill states the that intention of On Liberty is to highlight “the importance, to man and society of a large variety in types of character, and of giving full freedom to human nature to expand itself in innumerable and conflicting directions” (Autobiography). Further, Mill defines the purpose of On Liberty within the essay itself, stating, “The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle… that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection” (On Liberty). For Mill, this independence is a crucial aspect of a thriving society, and this independence must be offered to all members of society. Ultimately, Mill states that no individual’s rights, no matter the gender, should be hindered, unless their actions prove to be harmful to another individual. According to Karen Zivi in her periodical “Cultivating Character: John Stuart Mill and the Subject of Rights”, “a rights claim is valid… if it contributes to individual and social well-being, and… in exercising that right, [one avoids] doing harm to others” (51). Similar notions toward individualism and liberty are portrayed on other examples of Mill’s