Like many women
philosophers, Harriet Taylor (1807-1858) has been known to the public
primarily through her association with a male philosopher; in Taylor’s case the
male philosopher was John Stuart Mill (coming up next). Taylor and Mill shared
a long personal and professional intimacy, and each shaped and influenced the
ideas of the other. However, Taylor was a published author of poetry before she
even met Mill in 1831. Recently, a draft of an essay on toleration of
nonconformity was discovered in Taylor’s handwriting; it appears to have been
written in 1832. She was a regular contributor of poetry, book reviews, and a
literary piece to the radical, utilitarian, and feminist journal The Monthly
Repository. Later, Mill, too, became a regular contributor, and eventually
Taylor and Mill began writing together. However, their writings were published
under Mill’s name, partly because a man’s name gave the work more legitimacy
within a sexist culture but also because Taylor’s husband was unhappy with the
idea of his wife’s gaining notoriety. Nevertheless, from the evidence of their
manuscripts and their personal correspondence, it is possible to piece together
an idea of which works were primarily Taylor’s and which were Mill’s; she was a
profound thinker in her own right.
Taylor was interested both in sweeping transformations of
society and in specific legal reforms. One of her greatest concerns was the
tendency of English society to stifle individuality, originality, and radical
political and religious views. English society, in her opinion, was intolerant
of opinions that failed to conform to the mainstream. She considered the
intolerance of nonconformity to be morally wrong and ultimately dangerous to
human progress. Taylor’s essay on such intolerance is a stirring statement of
the theory that “the opinion of society—majority opinion— is the root of all
intolerance.” Her defense of minority viewpoints and individuality predated by
twenty-seven years Mill’s famous treatise On Liberty (see the excerpt
from this work at the end of the chapter).
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