John Stuart Mill

On Liberty (Annotated) John Stuart Mill

Differentiated book- It has a historical context with research of the time-John Stuart Mill is a clear example of that from Lytton Strachey they are called "eminent Victorians", that is, of that kind of people who in the 19th century combined a successful individualism with the no less deep conviction that the fact of being part of a cultural elite not only did not grant them rights but was a source of obligations and social burdens. He was born in London on May 20, 1806 and was the oldest in a family of nine brothers. His father, James Mill, can be considered a precursor of utilitarianism. Of Scottish origin he was an economist, philosopher and disciple of Bentham and Ricardo worked at the East India Company, whose history he wrote. Like his friend Bentham, and following the enlightened Helvetius, he was persuaded that education can do everything in character formation and he set out to prove it with his son, whom he turned into a kind of "reasoning machine", imposing an atrocious discipline . The little boy learned Greek at age three and with eight he had read at least fragments of Herodotus, Xenophon and Plato, with whom he had a fruitful dialogue throughout his work although he does not stop confessing that he did not understand the Teeteto the first time his father He gave it to him to read.