Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Childhood and Early Education: The Great Experiment (1806–1820)
- 2 Company Man and Youthful Propagandist (1821–1826)
- 3 Crisis (1826–1830)
- 4 The Discovery of Romance and Romanticism (1830–1840)
- 5 The Transitional Essays
- 6 Intellectual Success (1840–1845)
- 7 Worldly Success (1846–1850)
- 8 Private Years (1850–1859)
- 9 The Memorial Essays
- 10 Public Intellectual (1859–1869)
- 11 Last Years (1869–1873)
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - The Transitional Essays
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Childhood and Early Education: The Great Experiment (1806–1820)
- 2 Company Man and Youthful Propagandist (1821–1826)
- 3 Crisis (1826–1830)
- 4 The Discovery of Romance and Romanticism (1830–1840)
- 5 The Transitional Essays
- 6 Intellectual Success (1840–1845)
- 7 Worldly Success (1846–1850)
- 8 Private Years (1850–1859)
- 9 The Memorial Essays
- 10 Public Intellectual (1859–1869)
- 11 Last Years (1869–1873)
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The transitional essays reflect Mill's attempt to understand and to restate the Philosophic Radical agenda in the light of the new continental, conservative, and especially Romantic influences on his thinking. They also lay the groundwork for his explication of liberal culture that we have come to identify as his major (later) works.
The Spirit of the Age
Mill announced two general themes in this essay. The first is that the age he lived in reflected a remarkable historical development that needed to be addressed – namely, that it was an age of transition. “Mankind have outgrown old institutions and old doctrines and have not yet acquired new ones.” The transition to which Mill is alluding is the transition from feudalism to an industrial and commercial society accompanied by the growth of liberal culture (individual rights, the rule of law, free markets, etc.). The old institutions, including Parliament and the Church of England, were no longer able to understand, articulate, or guide the transition. The second general theme, in somewhat embryonic form, is that a philosophy of history had now become an important parameter for understanding ourselves.
With regard to the theme that his age is an age of transition, Mill makes four important points. First, the members of the landed aristocracy had exercised positive leadership of society during the feudal period. Their experience had promoted the kind of virtues that made positive leadership possible. However, this was no longer the case.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- John Stuart MillA Biography, pp. 133 - 156Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004