J. S. Mill: How to Become a Philosopher

In an 1862 letter, John Stuart Mill gave the following advice to an aspiring writer:

“The way to cultivate a really philosophical intellect is to go on long thinking out subjects for one’s own instruction—with a view to understand them as thoroughly as possible oneself; reading in the meanwhile whatever is best worth reading on the subjects one is studying, collating one’s own thoughts with those of the books one reads & gathering from them new materials for thinking. Those who do this, patiently & unambitiously, without looking much to any ulterior object, are the most likely to be able, sooner or later, to teach something valuable to others. They may never discover any great new truths; to do this is a good fortune which happens to few persons in a century, & the less we think of it as likely to happen to ourselves, the better for us. But originality does not consist solely in making great discoveries; whoever thinks out a subject with his own mind, not accepting the phrases of his predecessors instead of facts, is original, & it is hardly possible for any one to do this even on the most hacknied subject without turning up some new or neglected aspects of truths, or making some unexpected & perhaps fruitful applications of them.

“I would recommend to you, then, by all means to persevere in your speculations; but, were you a Plato, a Locke, or a Bentham, I could not advise you, unless you had a pecuniary independence, to give your time to such pursuits to the neglect of other modes of gaining a subsistence. I believe that to do anything in philosophy, tranquillity of mind, & especially freedom from anxiety as to the means of livelihood, are almost indispensable. To live by philosophy, unless as a public teacher in an University, is wholly impossible; & if your daily occupation leaves you even a little leisure, you will very probably in that little do quite as much, in a favourite pursuit, as you would be likely to do by devoting all your time to it. The mind, if strained too long on one subject, works less pleasurably, & for that reason, even were there no other, less vigorously; while combining two occupations makes each of them, as I have found in my own experience, a rest from the other.”