MILL, JAMES. - Historian and philosopher, b. at Northwater Bridge (southern Scotland) on 6 April 1773, d. in London on 26 June 1836. He studied letters and theology at the University of Edinburgh. Licensed as a preacher (1798), he nevertheless did not pursue an ecclesiastical career (Presbyterian) and indeed later took clear positions of religious radicalism. In 1802 he went to London, where he was editor of the Literary journal. In 1806 he began his History of British India (6 vols., 1818-19), a vast investigation into the origins of the British Empire in India. Despite severe criticisms of the government of the East India Company, the work earned him appointment to an important post in the Indian House. In London he formed a friendship with Bentham (v.), whose ethical-political principles he shared. Meanwhile he contributed to various reviews (Edinburgh Review until 1813; Westminster Review, 1824-26). In 1821 he published the Elements of political economy (Italian trans. Milan 1831) and in 1829 the Analysis of the phenomena of human mind (new ed., annotated by his son John Stuart, by Bain and by Findlater in 2 vols., 1869). His last work dates from 1835, Fragments on Mackintosh, a critique of Mackintosh's (v.) ethics from the standpoint of utilitarianism (v.).
As an economist, M. follows the ideas of Ricardo (v.). He acted, through his writings and through his activity at the Indian House, upon English politics and must be regarded as the principal founder of anti-aristocratic "philosophical radicalism" and a champion of the principles of utilitarianism. In philosophy M. further develops the associationism of Hume (v.) and of Hartley (v.). Every idea or representation arises through the association of different sensations inseparably connected, so as to give rise to a unitary content (the principle of mental chemistry). Among the laws of association M. regards almost exclusively spatio-temporal contiguity. In the psychology of association, extended by M. also to affective states, he saw a valid aid to the improvement of legislation and to the perfecting of man.