John Stuart Mill was born in London in 1806, he was a Member of Parliament, political economist, and philosopher. He heavily influenced the idea of classical liberalism which was his biggest contribution to social and political theory. His idea of liberty was promoting the freedom of the individual instead of state control. He was a huge supporter of utilitarianism which is an ethical theory that was developed by Jeremy Bentham, one of his mentors. Mill was a member of the liberal party and was a proponent of women’s suffrage, he also wrote the feminist work The Subjection of Women. He was given a sheltered upbringing, he was not exposed to other children his own age apart from his siblings. His father was a proponent of associationism, a philosophy that Jeremy Bentham had introduced him to. Associationism is when one has the singular aim to create a genius who would continue to uphold the theory of utilitarianism. Mill was a very intelligent child, he was taught history, arithmetic, physics, and astronomy. At the age of eight he began to teach his younger siblings these subjects. By the time he was ten, he was reading the works of Plato as he had learned Greek and Latin. Mill’s father taught him the importance of the skill of composing one’s own poetry which influenced some of his earlier poetic pieces. He then began to study scholastic logic and the political economy. In his teen years, Mill spent time in France where he studied chemistry, zoology, and logic as well as upper level mathematics. While in France, he met many notable members of the French liberal party. However he did not have an easy time mental health wise in these years. As he wrote in his autobiography, he attempted suicide and battled depression for most of his life. When he was seventeen, Mill began a career as a colonial administrator at the East India Company and was later promoted to the Company’s Political Department where he oversaw the correspondence involving the company’s relation with it’s primary states. In 1851, Mill married Harriet Taylor. She influenced much of his work by reinforcing advocacy of women’s rights. This led to Mill speaking out against domestic violence and heavily advocating for women’s rights. While serving as Lord Rector at the University of St. Andrews, he was a Member of Parliament for the City of Westminster. He was a part of the liberal party. During his time as an MP he advocated easing UK controls on Ireland. He was the first person in parliament to call for women’s suffrage. He was also a strong advocate of social reforms like labor unions and farm coops; he called for reforms of parliament voting as well. He advocated for the retention of capital punishment for crimes such as murder. Later in his life he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society. Mill advocated for many progressive reforms which was rare for male politicians at the time. His views and tenacious advocacy aligned very much with his utilitarian ideology. From his many books on government reform to his ferocious belief in gender equality, Mill was a great politician who revolutionized much of the political theory and philosophy we know today.