John Stuart Mill

About the author

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) stands as the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century, a distinction earned through his rigorous defense of liberalism, individual liberty, and utilitarian ethics. Born in London, he championed proportional representation, women's emancipation, and labor cooperatives, and served as a Liberal Party MP — becoming the second parliamentarian to call for women's suffrage. Co-author of The Subjection of Women (1869) and author of the landmark On Liberty (1859), his ideas remain so vital that a copy of the latter is still passed to each new Liberal Democrats president as a symbol of office.