The Openness of Life’s Meaning in John Stuart Mill’s Philosophy

This article argues that John Stuart Mill’s conception of happiness represents a fundamental shift from closed, static ideals of the meaning of life to an open, dynamic framework centered on perpetual self-development. It explains Mill’s critiques of Jeremy Bentham and Auguste Comte as expressing the view that truth is inherently dynamic and progressive, which becomes the foundation for reconceiving human flourishing. Rather than thinking of happiness in terms of desire satisfaction, pleasures, and positive emotions, Mill articulates an ideal of the meaning of life based on originality, creativity, struggle, freedom, and progress—elements that align him more closely with the ideal of authenticity than with traditional utilitarian theories of happiness. This interpretation challenges conventional readings that position Mill as merely refining utilitarianism, suggesting instead that Mill’s mental breakdown was a turning point that fundamentally transformed the question of what makes life meaningful.