John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill is undoubtedly one of the most relevant thinkers in a period as fruitful as the 19th century was for philosophy. Maximum exponent of utilitarianism, the doctrine that affirms that the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people should be our guide when acting, all his work is a reflection on the meaning and desirable character of the ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity . Some of his essays, such as the famous On Freedom (1859) or Utilitarianism (1863) are already essential classics in the history of philosophy. But his importance does not derive from this well-earned historical pre-eminence, but from the fact that his ideas are still alive, they continue to give us food for thought and enlighten us when trying to respond to many of the problems we face. Mill would view with approval many of the advances in our societies (for example, everything that has to do with the emancipation of women), but he would also consider that we still have a lot to improve. For a life like yours, dedicated like few others to contributing to the progress of humanity and extraordinarily demanding on an intellectual level, there will always be many things to achieve and many defects to eliminate.