John Stuart Mill
1806-1873 · Utilitarianism · Renowned
Mill was a Victorian thinker whose On Liberty argues that the one good reason to stop a person doing as they like is harm to someone else. Freedom of thought follows: opinions you find repellent should be answered rather than banned. He reworked utilitarianism by ranking some pleasures above others in kind, and in The Subjection of Women made an early philosophical case for the equality of women.
Signature
The position Mill is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Polity
- leans Liberalism
- Ethics Basis
- Utilitarian Calculation
Positions on the 12 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- leans Mechanistic (29 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- leans Individualism (83 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Universals
- leans Nominalism (79 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Meaning
- leans Constructed (25 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Multiplicity (75 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- leans Immanence (25 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- leans Subjective (25 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Nature
- leans Mastery (25 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Polity
- leans Liberalism (87 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- Ethics
- leans Ends (19 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- Conviction
- strongly leans Uncertain (5 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- leans Global (75 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
8 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Mill refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Agnosticism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Representative Democracy / Epistocracy
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Pleasure
What is the highest good? - Perception
- Phenomenalism
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Sense Experience
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Utilitarian Calculation
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Compatibilism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Time
- Linear Progressive
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Economy
- Market Capitalism
What is the ideal organization of economic life? - Authority
- Consent of the Governed
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Representation
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Law
- Legal Positivism
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Death
- Agnostic
What happens at death? - Human Nature
- Tabula Rasa
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Humanity
What is your primary bond and loyalty?