395

John Stuart Mill was raised by his father James Mill in a very strict, borderline abusive way in order to educate him as much as possible, with the express intent of creating a genius. It's kind of similar to those kids who get sequestered away from a young age to learn gymnastics, in order to try to produce a gold medalist, except for philosophy. Yeah, pretty weird, but it did work.

James Mill was a follower of Jeremy Bentham and devoting all of his energy to bringing Bentham's ideas into the world, and raising John Stuart Mill to be a "genius" and having him write a greater philosophical justification for Utilitarianism was part of that. It really could not have worked out better for him, and Mill became extremely influential, and laid out a much more rigorous and convincing form of utilitarianism. Ironically, of course, for the theory is that James Mill's own actions hardly seemed like he was trying to create "the greatest happiness" for those he knew, as he abusive and controlling to his children and wife.

Bentham style utilitarians are pretty notorious for being able to justify almost any behavior with the idea that it will create more happiness in some future time "overall". Bentham himself was obsessed with creating "panopticon" prisons that would more or less mentally tortured the prisoners to "reform" them. John Stuart Mill's system largely addressed this, focusing more on freedom and autonomy as the ideal path to happiness, and distinguishing between types of happiness.

John Stuart Mill was raised by his father James Mill in a very strict, borderline abusive way in order to educate him as much as possible, with the express intent of creating a genius. It's kind of similar to those kids who get sequestered away from a young age to learn gymnastics, in order to try to produce a gold medalist, except for philosophy. Yeah, pretty weird, but it did work.

James Mill was a follower of Jeremy Bentham and devoting all of his energy to bringing Bentham's ideas into the world, and raising John Stuart Mill to be a "genius" and having him write a greater philosophical justification for Utilitarianism was part of that. It really could not have worked out better for him, and Mill became extremely influential, and laid out a much more rigorous and convincing form of utilitarianism. Ironically, of course, for the theory is that James Mill's own actions hardly seemed like he was trying to create "the greatest happiness" for those he knew, as he abusive and controlling to his children and wife.

Bentham style utilitarians are pretty notorious for being able to justify almost any behavior with the idea that it will create more happiness in some future time "overall". Bentham himself was obsessed with creating "panopticon" prisons that would more or less mentally tortured the prisoners to "reform" them. John Stuart Mill's system largely addressed this, focusing more on freedom and autonomy as the ideal path to happiness, and distinguishing between types of happiness.