Feminist Thought
b. 1806 in London
d. 1873
Education
Father gave him a strong classical
education from a young age
Associated with Jeremy Bentham:
Humans are “governed by two sovereign masters: pleasure and pain.”
As model of government, just as men
use their rationality to seek pleasure, avoid pain, “by rationally ordering
individual preferences, government could provide conditions for the achievement
of the greatest happiness for the greatest number” (Losco and Williams,
401)
Falsification as a key component of
scientific method.
Depression
1826 severe episode; nervous
breakdown.
he attributed to “the failure of his
education to attend to the emotive side of his personality” (Losco and
Williams, 401)
Found an antidote in English
Romantics Wordsworth and Coleridge
Sought to humanize utlitarianism,
broaden
e.g. writes about altruism,
friendship, affection
Met in 1831
lifelong friendship, intellectual
relationship, partnership
married 2-3 yrs after her husband’s
death (1851) after 21 years of friendship
she was reluctant to marry due to
the scandal their frienship had caused and their radical views on marriage; she
died 1858.
Mill said that he owed half of all
he wrote during their lives together to her, but she demurred from taking joint
credit.
Publications
System of Logic (1843)
On Liberty (1859)
Utilitarianism
(1863)
On the Subjection
of Women (1869)
Other Activities/Interests
Served in Parliament 1865-68
Francophile
– recuperated from breakdown in France; buried with Harriet in Avignon;
Loved
mountainous landscapes.
Discussion Questions:
What is Mill’s aspiration for the
relation between the sexes, as articulated in “The Subjection of
Women?”
What, according to Mill, is the role
of feeling in defending one’s argument (417)?
Does this seem an odd notion? Why? Why do you think Mill includes this appeal to feeling in his argument?