THREE ESSAYS ON RELIGION. Nature; Utility Of Religion; Theism (Timeless Wisdom Collection) - Softcover

Mill, John Stuart

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1537399314 ISBN 13: 9781537399317

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016

Synopsis

This is another important book by John Stuart Mill, an English philosopher, political economist, feminist, and civil servant, who became one of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism; and contributed widely to social theory, political theory and political economy. He has been called "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century." Mill's conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. In “Three Essays on Religion” the author offers his most sustained analysis of religious belief. Though not prepared to abandon the idea of an overall design in nature, Mill nonetheless argues that its violence and capriciousness mitigate against moral ends in nature's workings. Moreover, any designer of such a world as we experience cannot be all powerful and all good, for nature is "too clumsily made and capriciously governed."

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In these three essays, "Nature", "The Utility of Religion", and "Theism", published between 1850 and 1870, English social and political philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) gives his most sustained analysis of religious belief. Though not prepared to abandon the idea of an overall design in nature, Mill nonetheless argues that its violence and capriciousness militate against moral ends in nature's workings. Moreover, any designer of such a world as we experience it cannot be all powerful and all good, for nature is "too clumsily made and capriciously governed". However, since humankind, by and large, cannot, it seems, be deprived of religion, Mill espouses what he calls a "religion of humanity", whose concepts of justice, morality, and altruism are based on classical models and on the New Testament Sermon on the Mount rather than on the vindictive God of the Old Testament and the world-hating doctrines of St. Paul.

About the Author:

JOHN STUART MILL was born in London on May 20, 1806, the son of noted Scottish economist and philosopher James Mill, who held an influential post in the powerful East India Company. Mill's natural talent and physical stamina were put to the test at a very young age when he undertook a highly structured and individual­ized upbringing orchestrated by his father, who believed that the mind was a passive receptacle for human experience. His educa­tion and training were so intense that he was reading Greek at the age of three and doing independent writing at six.

Mill's education broadened considerably after 1823 when he entered the East India Company to commence his life's career as his father had done before him. He traveled, became politically involved, and in so doing moved away from the narrower sectar­ian attitudes in which he had been raised. His ideas and imagina­tion were ignited by the views of such diverse personalities as Wordsworth, Saint-Simon, Coleridge, Comte, and de Tocqueville. 

During his life, Mill wrote many influential works: System of Logic (1843); Principles of Political Economy (1848); On Liberty (1859); The Subjection of Women (1861); Utilitarianism (1863); Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy (1865); and Autobiography (1873).

As a defender of individual freedom and human rights, John Stuart Mill lives on as a nineteenth-century champion of social reform. He died on May 7, 1873.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1537399314
• ISBN 13: 9781537399317
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 132