James preferred to take a theoretic approach to social subjects rather than a more empirical one as was common in his time. His best known literary work is his
The History of British India where he describes the acquisition of Indian Empire by England and later the United Kingdom. He also brings political theory to bear on the delineation of the Hindu civilization, and subjects the conduct of the actors in the successive stages of the conquest and administration of India to severe criticism. The work itself, and the author's official connection with India for the last seventeen years of his life, effected a complete change in the whole system of governance in the country. Mill never visited the Indian colony, relying solely on documentary material and archival records in compiling his work. This fact has led to severe criticism of Mill's
History of India by notable economist Amartya Sen.
Mill played a great part also in British politics, and was, more than any other man, the founder of what was called "philosophic radicalism". His writings on government and his personal influence among the Liberal politicians of his time determined the change of view from the French Revolution theories of the rights of man and the absolute equality of men to the claiming of securities for good government through a wide extension of the franchise. Under this banner it was that, the Reform Bill was fought and won. His
Elements of Political Economy followed up the views of Ricardo, with whom Mill was always on terms of intimacy. By 1911, the Encyclopædia Britannica described it as being of mainly historical interest, "an accurate summary of views that are now largely discarded". Among the more important of its theses are:
- that the chief problem of practical reformers is to limit the increase of population, on the assumption that capital does not naturally increase at the same rate as population (ii. § 2, art. 3)
- that the value of a thing depends entirely on the quantity of labour put into it; and
- that what is now known as the "unearned increment" of land is a proper object for taxation.
By his
Analysis of the Mind and his
Fragment on Mackintosh Mill acquired a position in the history of psychology and ethics. He took up the problems of mind very much after the fashion of the Scottish Enlightenment, as then represented by Thomas Reid, Dugald Stewart and Thomas Brown, but made a new start, due in part to David Hartley, and still more to his own independent thinking. He carried out the principle of association into the analysis of the complex emotional states, as the affections, the aesthetic emotions and the moral sentiment, all which he endeavoured to resolve into pleasurable and painful sensations. But the salient merit of the
Analysis is the constant endeavour after precise definition of terms and clear statement of doctrines. He had a great impact on Franz Brentano who discussed his work in his own empirical psychology (Franz Brentano:
Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt. Ed. Oskar Kraus, 2 vols. Leipzig: Meiner, 1924—25; ed. Mauro Antonelli. Heusenstamm: Ontos, 2008).The
Fragment on Mackintosh severely criticizes the alleged flimsiness and misrepresentations of Sir James Mackintosh's famous
Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy (1830), and discusses the foundations of ethics from the author's utilitarian point of view.