The Improvement of Mankind
The Social and Political Thought of John Stuart Mill
- Publisher
- University of Toronto Press
- Initial publish date
- Dec 2024
- Category
- Political, Logic, Social, Ethics & Moral Philosophy
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781487574505
- Publish Date
- Feb 2019
- List Price
- $46.95
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781487585761
- Publish Date
- Dec 2024
- List Price
- $46.95
Add it to your shelf
Where to buy it
Description
Although John Stuart Mill is generally and properly known as a philosopher and political economist, his writings actually cover a wide variety of subjects. In this book Professor Robson brings together the most important strands of Mill’s thought in an attempt to show that it contains a basic unity of approach, at the heart of which is his ethical system. Mill’s ethical position depends on his understanding of the relation between practice and theory, and reflects his own experience, especially his “metal crisis,” his appreciation of poetry, and his friendship with Harriet Taylor (who later became his wife). The study brings out the importance of the three phases in Mill’s life: his early period of adherence to the ideas of James Mill and Bentham; his period of assimilation of the influences of Coleridge, Carlyle, Comte, and de Toequeville; and finally his period of mature fame, when he published his System of Logic, Principles of Political Government, Utilitarianism, and other works still central in the British liberal tradition and still used as university texts.
Mill’s eminence makes his thought important to anyone interested in recent political, social, economic, and philosophical trends; and his life, as his Autobiography demonstrates, has its own fascination for the general reader as well as for the student of the nineteenth century.
About the author
JOHN M. ROBSON was born educated in Toronto, graduating from the University of Toronto (B.A. 1951, M.A. 1953, PH.D. 1956). After lecturing at the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta, he joined the staff as Victoria College, University of Toronto, where he is now Professor of English. He is Associate Editor of the Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, and he also edited Edmund Burke’s Appel from the New to the Old Whigs, J.S. Mill: A Selection, and Editing Nineteenth-Century Texts.
Other titles by
Editing Nineteenth-Century Texts
Editing Nineteenth-Century Texts
The Improvement of Mankind
The Social and Political Thought of John Stuart Mill
Benjamin Disraeli Letters
1860-1864, Volume VIII
Marriage or Celibacy?
The Daily Telegraph on a Victorian Dilemma
A Moralist In and Out of Parliament
John Stuart Mill at Westminster, 1865-1868
Writings on India
Volume XXX
Journals and Debating Speeches
Volumes XXVI-XXVII
Origin and Evolution of the Universe
Evidence for Design?
Newspaper Writings
Volumes XXII-XXV