John Stuart Mill Nietzsche on Creativity free essay sample

Describes compares philosophers views on history as creative source, creative individuals; Nietzsches views on free spirits good evil. In On Liberty (1859) John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) begins his meditations on the past as the source of creativity by citing the philosophical and social writings of the German thinker, Baron Wilhelm von Humboldt (1761-1835). In his chapter On Individual-ity, Mill focuses on Humboldts claim that originality derives from the individuality of power and development which depends upon the two requisites of freedom and variety of situations allowing individual vigor and manifold diversity to manifest itself (Mill, 1985, 121). Mill agrees with Humboldt that individuality is to be highly prized. Mills position is that individuals should not be expected merely to mimic the past and its greatness. Rather the greatest achievement for an individual according to Mill is to use and interpret experience in his own