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John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was an English philosopher best known for his contributions to political theory, economics and other subjects. Wikipedia says,
"Mill joined the debate over scientific method... in 1843 with A System of Logic... In 'Mill's Methods' of induction, like Herschel's laws, were discovered through observation and induction, and required empirical verification." (Wikipedia: John Stuart Mill, 8.18.21 UTC 11:41)Regarding political theory,
"Mill's On Liberty addresses the nature and limits of the power that can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual."Regarding utilitarianism,
"In a similar vein [to Bentham], Mill's method of determining the best utility is that a moral agent, when given the choice between two or more actions, ought to choose the action that contributed most to the total happiness in the world."In April 2017, I made a separate post for Mill regarding his economics. The rest of this post is some quotes regarding Mill's general philosophy.
Liberty
"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others." (On Liberty, 1859)
"Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in thing with which it ought not to meddle, it practises a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life and enslaving the soul itself." (On Liberty, 1859)
Utilitarianism
"To do as one would be done by, and to love one's neighbour as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality." (Utilitarianism, 1861)
"Questions of ultimate ends are not amenable to direct proof. Whatever can be proved to be good, must be so by being shown to be a means to something admitted to be good without proof." (Utilitarianism, 1861)
"The art of music is good, for the reason, among others, that it produces pleasure; but what proof is it possible to give that pleasure is good?" (Utilitarianism, 1861)
Epistemology
"He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion." (Of Liberty, 1859)
"Since reasoning, or inference, the principal subject of logic, is an operation which usually takes place by means of words, and in complicated cases can take place in no other way: those who have not a thorough insight into both the signification and purpose of words, will be under chances, amounting almost to certainty, of reasoning or inferring incorrectly." (A System of Logic, 1843)
"Newton saw the truth of many propositions of geometry without reading the demonstrations, but not, we may be sure without their flashing through his mind. A truth, or supposed truth, which is really the result of a very rapid inference may seem to be apprehended intuitively." (A System of Logic, 1843)
"Whatever is known to us by consciousness, is known beyond possibility of question. What one sees or feels, whether bodily or mentally, one cannot but be sure that one sees or feels." (A System of Logic, 1843)
"As there were black swans, though civilized people have existed for three thousand years on the earth without meeting with them... The uniform experience, therefore, of the inhabitants of the known world, agreeing in a common result, without one known instance of deviation from that result, is not always sufficient to establish a general conclusion." (A System of Logic, 1843)
