Poli 212 History of Western Political Philosophy Professor Sammy Basu

Introduction to J.S.Mill’s On Liberty and The Subjection of Women

JOHN STUART MILL (1806-1873)

Context:

http://www.victorianweb.org/index.html

http://www.victorianweb.org/philosophy/mill/millov.html

http://www.victoriantimes.org/ixbin/hixclient.exe?_IXSESSION_=1cNJR4ZtCcf&_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=weblinks.html

http://www.victorianlondon.org/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/britain/o_victorians.shtml

Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901)

a period of intensive industrialisation and urbanisation.

industrialization

urbanization

http://www.life.com/image/7386036

Social homogeneity

http://www.conservationtech.com/x-MILLTOWNS/RL-Photographs-4x5/England/Newcastle.jpg

nature and the River Thames

Printing the Thames in the 19th century

http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.150/chapterId/3132/outputFormat/print/Printing-the-Thames-in-the-19th-century.html

‘public health’

http://www.uiowa.edu/~c016136/LectureOutlines/PublicHealth.htm

http://www.victorianlondon.org/entertainment/ginpalace2.png

Opium Den

Pentonville Prison, London 1862

legislative progress

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/changes.html

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/legistl.html

utilitarianism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism

romanticism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth

http://www.poetseers.org/the_romantics/william_wordsworth/library

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image%3ADer_Wanderer_Ueber_dem_Nebelmeer.jpg

police

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/police.html

reformation of manners

http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/herb9.html

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/taylorgr/sxnhst/chap11.htm

http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/rogers.html

the gentleman

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/Gentleman.html

drinking

http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/punch/20.html

prostitution

http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/punch/49.html

doubleness towards women

http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/arts2.html

especially

http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/chains.html

fashion

http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/punch/61.html

woman's inferiority to men

"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." (Genesis 3:16)

"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." (I Corinthians 14:34-35)

Paul seems to make clear and delineates the importance of woman recognizing her place:

(See also I Cor. 11:3-12, I Timothy 2:8-15, I Peter 3:1-7, Ephesians 5:22-24, Col. 3:18-19.)

"The bible teaches that women brought sin and death into the world, that she precipitated the fall of the race, that she was arraigned before the judgment seat of Heaven, tried, condemned and sentenced. Marriage for her was to be a condition of bondage, maternity a period suffering and anguish, and in silence and subjection, she was to play the role of a dependent on man's bounty for all her material wants, and for all the information she might desire... Here is the Bible position of woman briefly summed up."

--Elizabeth Cady Stanton http://www.undelete.org/library/library0041-264.html

http://www.twopaths.com/faq_womensrights.htm

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/143/story_14351_1.html

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/women.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/lj/victorian_britainlj/women_urban1.shtml?site=history_victorianlj_urban

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/welfare/women_urban_04.shtml

Suffragettes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3153388.stm

http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/subject/suff/images/

marriage

http://www.fathom.com/course/10701039/10701039Vicmarriage.jpg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/lj/victorian_britainlj/idealwomen_01.shtml?site=history_victorianlj_ideal

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/history/renderplain.pl?file=/history/lj/victorian_britainlj/idealwomen_01.shtml

cartoons against women

http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/punch/subjects4.html

http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/punch/subjects5.html

Author:

John Stuart Mill

James Mill and Jeremy Bentham

William Wordsworth (Daffodills)

Harriet Taylor (1807-1858)

John Stuart Mill and his wife Harriet's

daughter (JSM's stepdaughter) Helen Tay in 1860

Mill’s politics

This cartoon mocks John Stuart Mill's

attempt to replace the term 'man' with 'person' in the second Reform Bill of 1867.

Mill, a social reformer and MP, became known as a champion of women's rights.

His proposal was greeted with laughter in the House of Commons,

and defeated by 76 votes to 196. PRO LIBRARY Punch, p.129 (30 March 1867)

Old John Stuart Mill

On Liberty

http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/image/harriettaylor.jpg

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill/

http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/m/milljs.htm

http://www.utilitarianism.com/jsmill.htm

Text:

works:

• "Two Letters on the Measure of Value", 1822, The Traveller
• "Questions of Population", 1823,  Black Dwarf
• "War Expenditure", 1824, Westminster Rev
• "Quarterly Review -- Political Economy", 1825, Westminster Rev
• "Review of Miss Martineau's Tales", 1830, Examiner
• "The Spirit of the Age", 1831, Examiner
• "Essay on Bentham" 1838
• A System of Logic, 1843. - (Book VI)
• Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy, 1844 
• "Claims of Labour", 1845, Edinburgh Rev
• The Principles of Political Economy: with some of their applications to social philosophy, 1848
• "The Negro Question", 1850, Fraser's Magazine
• Dissertations and Discussions, 1859.
• On Liberty , 1859 (Copies (1), (2) ,  (3) , (4) )
• Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform, 1859.
• Considerations on Representative Government, 1860 (copy)
• "Centralisation", 1862, Edinburgh Rev
• "The Contest in America", 1862, Fraser's Magazine (repr. Harper's; also pamphlet)
• Utilitarianism 1863
• An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy, Vol. I, Vol. II, 1865.
• Auguste Comte and Positivism, 1865.
• Inaugural Address at St. Andrews, 1867.
• "Speech In Favor of Capital Punishment", 1868
• England and Ireland, 1868.
• "Thornton on Labor and its Claims", 1869, Fortnightly Review
• The Subjection of Women, 1869 (copy 1, copy 2)
• Chapters and Speeches on the Irish Land Question, 1870
• On Nature, 1874
• Autobiography of John Stuart Mill, 1873
• Three Essays on Religion, 1874.
• "Notes on N.W. Senior's Political Economy", 1945, Economica

http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/mill.htm