ABSTRACT
The life of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) spanned the historical period in which the processes and consequences of industrialisation came to dominate the social and political structure of European society, and his life experience provided him with the knowledge and education necessary to get to grips with understanding the dynamics of this ‘brave new world’. In his autobiography Mill sets out the story of his personal and intellectual development. This clearly shows how the major events and issues of his time shaped his intellectual development and how in turn his understanding of these things developed into an argument for the primacy of individual liberty and its vital necessity to each human’s happiness and social progress.
