Nietzsche and Mill: Philosophers’ Lives, Works, and Influence
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born in Röcken in 1844 and died in Weimar in 1900. He was a German philosopher, poet, and philologist, considered one of the most influential modern thinkers of the nineteenth century.
The son of an evangelical pastor, who died five years later, Nietzsche grew up in a completely female-dominated Protestant pietism. Nietzsche first studied at boarding Pforte School, where he received his initial knowledge of classical antiquity, which would become a basic reference for his later thought.
Later, he studied classical philology at the universities of Bonn and Leipzig. In 1869, at the age of 25, Nietzsche was appointed professor of classical philology at Basel University. This appointment was aided by philological work that the young Nietzsche had published before finishing his studies.
After his retirement, Nietzsche spent long periods in the French Riviera and in northern Italy, dedicated to thinking and writing. However, his works were not as successful as anticipated, and Nietzsche became increasingly isolated. In early 1889, in Turin, when he was nearly blind, Nietzsche suffered a fit of madness from which he never recovered.
Among his most important works are: Aurora, The Gay Science, Beyond Good and Evil, Genealogy of Morals, Twilight of the Idols, The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Antichrist, and The Will to Power.
Nietzsche argued that belief in God, morality, and metaphysics have proved inconsistent, and that their origin is not in man but in weak and suffering individuals who cannot overcome their grief and find solace elsewhere. He spoke of the “death of God” and proposed a new type of man: the Übermensch (super-man). In parallel, he warned about the danger of our time giving birth to the lowest of men, the “last man,” who lived alienated from both the greatness of classical man and the potential of the Übermensch. The “last man” is one who conforms superficially and is not touched by the “death of God.” Nietzsche neglected this type of man. In contrast, in several passages, he shows admiration for the saints and members of the clergy of the Catholic Church, not for their faith but for their self-imposed discipline. Nietzsche was undoubtedly a person of aristocratic spirit.
John Stuart Mill
Born in London in 1806, John Stuart Mill was educated in a very rigid manner by his father, James Mill, who, seeing that his son had a special talent, tried to turn him into a genuine intellectual phenomenon. To do so, he received help from an old family acquaintance: Jeremy Bentham. As a child, he had no contact with other children, lived apart from his brothers, and was educated at home. At a young age, he could read books in Latin and Greek and was an expert in mathematics, economics, and classical philosophy. He was removed from religion and any kind of art that would promote the development of feelings, except for a bit of music. In 1826, his approaches were in crisis, and he was about to commit suicide, but he recovered thanks to enthusiastic reading of English Romantic poetry. He fell in love with Harriet Taylor, who became his wife.
He died in Avignon in 1873.
Among his key works, we can highlight: Bentham (1838), System of Logic (1834), where he developed his theory of science, Essays on Some Disputed Questions in Political Economy (1844), Principles of Political Economy (1848), On Liberty (1859), Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform (1859), Considerations on Representative Government (1861), Utilitarianism (1863), The Subjection of Women (1869), and Autobiography (1873). Three letters published posthumously in 1874 are also noteworthy: Nature, The Utility of Religion, and Theism.
Mill was an empiricist philosopher and exponent of Utilitarianism. His philosophy was formed from the influences he received from Jeremy Bentham, founder of utilitarianism and defender of act utilitarianism, and James Mill, who provided some knowledge of economics. Mill lived in an era focused on the birth of new sciences intended to study man himself, including the Sciences Morales, and became involved in issues concerning the Sociologie promoted by Auguste Comte.
He was also influenced by a book by Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America, which influenced his thoughts about the creation of the state.