MILL, JAMES. — Historian and philosopher, born at Northwater Bridge (southern Scotland) on 6 April 1773, died in London on 26 June 1836. He studied literature and theology at the University of Edinburgh. Licensed as a preacher (1798), he nevertheless did not pursue an ecclesiastical (Presbyterian) career and, indeed, later adopted firm positions of religious radicalism. In 1802 he went to London, where he became editor of the Literary journal. In 1806 he began his History of British India (6 vols., 1818–19), an extensive study of the origins of the British Empire in India. Despite the severe criticisms of the government of the East India Company, the work earned him an important position in the Indian House. In London BENTHAM, JEREMY (v.), whose ethical and political principles he shared. In the meantime he contributed to various periodicals (Edinburgh Review until 1813; Westminster Review, 1824–26). In 1821 he published the Elements of political economy (Italian translation, Milan 1831), and in 1829 the Analysis of the phenomena of human mind (new edition, with commentary by his son John Stuart, Bain, and Findlater, in 2 vols., 1869). His final work, Fragments on Mackintosh, dates from 1835; it is a criticism of Mackintosh’s (v.) utilitarianism (v.).
As an economist, M. follows the ideas of Ricardo (v.). Through his writings and his activity at the Indian House, he influenced English politics and must be regarded as the principal founder of anti-aristocratic « philosophical radicalism » and as an advocate of the principles of utilitarianism. In philosophy, M. Hume (v.) Hartley (v.). Every idea or representation arises through the association of various sensations that are inseparably connected, so as to give rise to a unitary content (the principle of mental chemistry). Among the laws of association, M. considers almost exclusively spatio-temporal contiguity. In the psychology of association, which M. also extended to affective states, he discerned a valuable aid to the improvement of legislation and the perfection of human beings.