John stuart mill (for history of psychology class) Essay

John stuart mill (for history of psychology class) - Essay Example He left Scotland four years later and went to London. James Stuart's London life has been divided into three periods: that of struggle - 1802-1819, the period of his most successful works - 1819- 1829 and the last one, from 1830 to his death, in 1836, when he both enjoyed fame and had been made Head Examiner in the India House. As to his inner life, some features are to be noticed: the negativist attitude towards religion, the strength of character, the critical and analytical spirit - "there is nothing which such a spirit will not analyze, nothing which it will not dare to comprehend" (Courtney, 1888, p.20), the rationality, lack of imagination and sympathy. Rationality and strength of character are to be seen both in his personal life, in his relationship with his children and friends, deprived of all emotion and feeling, and in his literary works. And it's according to the principles of pure logic that his son, John Stuart Mill was educated. We find an important amount of data concerning John Stuart Mill's life in his own autobiography. In the first chapter of his own book, before starting with the presentation of his childhood and early education, Mill states the reasons of his writing this work: "I do not for a moment imagine that any part of what I h... tory, it may be useful that there should be some record of an education which was unusual and remarkable, and which, whatever else it may have done, has proved how much more than is commonly supposed may be taught, and will taught, in those early years which, in the common modes of what is called instruction, are little better than wasted. It has also seemed to me that in an age of transition in opinions, there may be somewhat both of interest and of benefit in noting the successive phases of any mind which was always pressing forward, equally ready to learn and to unlearn either from its own thoughts or from those of others. But a motive which weighs more with me than either of these, is a desire to make acknowledgment of the debts which my intellectual and moral development owes to other persons; some of them of recognized eminence, others less known than they deserve to be, and the one to whom most of all is due, one whom the world had no opportunity of knowing." (Mill, 1944, p.1) As we can see, from the very beginning, John Stuart Mill states the influence that others had on his own development. From the following pages we find out, in the context of the presentation of his first years of life, who these others were. Born on the 20th of May, 1806, the English philosopher started learning Greek when he was three years old. In his book, this piece of information is presented as told by others, as he himself doesn't remember when he took his first Greek class. He reads Greek masterpieces: Herodotus, Socrates, Diogenes Laertius and Plato's writings and, when he is eight years old, he starts learning Latin. It's also during his early childhood that he learns arithmetic but most of his time is occupied with the reading of books - mostly history books. The child makes