Analysis Of John Stuart Mill’s Theory On Educational Ethics

John Stuart Mill (John Muller, and translation of John Stuart Mill,1806-1873)was a19th century utilitarian thinker and social reformist. His ideas relate to ethics,politics, economics, philosophy, logic, religion and many other fields. He was anadvocate of Jeremy Bentham’s "greatest happiness for the greatest number of people"utilitarian principle. He did, however, make a few amendments to Bentham’s theoriesand he came to be seen as one of the central figures in utilitarianism in his own right.Mill was interested in education, which he saw as a tool for reform. Mill was highlyconcerned about the poor social situation in the United Kingdom at the time. Thetheories he put forward were based largely on the problems he could see in society, aswell as his own personal experiences with education. This paper will discuss Mill’sideas and attempt to draw conclusions which could be useful today.Part one serves as an introduction and will outline the goals of this paper, aswell as some of the existing research in China that has been done on John Stuart Milltheories on education. This will include a brief discussion on the value that Mill’stheories possess and their potential practical use.Part two concerns the background of John Stuart Mill’s theories on educationalethics. John Stuart Mill’s lived in an era of an increasingly developed commodityeconomy, which presented new moral challenges. As one who sought "the greatesthappiness of the greatest number", it is natural that he became greatly interested in thestate of education in Britain. It was on the basis that he began to promote his ideas on“moral education”. The high quality education his family provided for him gave him aparticularly good grounding for the work he would do on this. In addition, he wasextremely well read in the theories of older contemporary thinkers, which he coulduse as a solid foundation for his own work.The third part is an analysis of Mill’s work itself. In particular, there will bediscussion of the centrality of happiness in his theories; his mission to improve basiceducation, his ideals regards uuniversity education, as well as a practical analysis ofhis views on the school curriculum in respect to utilitarianism. There will also be alook at his views on the balance between helping oneself and helping others, as wellas the promotion of morality among the wider populace.Part four will assess the value of John Stuart Mill’s theory on educational ethics. In particular there will be discussion of how the democratic, humanitarian andpractical aspects of utilitarianism influenced the Britain of the time. Finally, there willbe a look at some of the limitations of Mill’s theories in an attempt to sort what isuseful and what is not. This way, Mill’s theories can be used to their fullest in order toimprove moral education in China.