John Stuart Mill vs Karl Marx
Mill and Marx are the two great nineteenth-century critics of British political economy from within and without. Mill argued for the reform of the existing capitalist order toward a more equitable form of liberalism; Marx argued for its overthrow.
At a glance
| John Stuart Mill | Karl Marx | |
|---|---|---|
| Dates | 1806 – 1873 | 1818 – 1883 |
| Nationality | British | German |
| Era | Modern | Modern |
| Movements | Utilitarianism, Empiricism | Marxism, Continental Philosophy |
| Profile | John Stuart Mill → | Karl Marx → |
Where they agree
Both held that the nineteenth-century liberal-capitalist order had produced enormous productive capacity and equally enormous immiseration, both took the analysis of political economy as a central philosophical task, and both believed that the present social order is not a natural fact but a historical and changeable arrangement.
Where they disagree
Mill held that the achievements of liberal individualism — freedom of speech, representative government, individual rights — are genuine goods to be preserved and extended, with the abuses of capitalism correctable through political reform, cooperative enterprise, and progressive taxation. Marx held that liberal individualism is itself the ideological reflection of bourgeois class power, that the wage relation is a form of structural exploitation, and that no reformist remedy short of the abolition of class society can resolve the contradictions of capitalism. Where Mill is the canonical reformer, Marx is the canonical revolutionary.
Representative quotes
John Stuart Mill
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“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”
Ch. 2 -
“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.”
Ch. II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion -
“If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”
Ch. II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion
Karl Marx
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“The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.”
Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretirt; es kommt aber darauf an, sie zu verändern. -
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-ope -
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
As quoted in The Communist Manifesto (1848), p.2
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