This critical reflection will be a short formal essay that includes three components.
The first component is to explain the meaning of the quotations below from John Stuart Mill.
The second component is to explain how Mill’s idea relates to how Ivan Ilyich lived his life.
The third component is to explore how Mill’s quote and Ivan Ilyich’s life compare to the vision you have for your life.
Length: 800-1000 words (not counting the title page and list of references), double spaced, 12 point font, 1″ margins
Format: APA format, including title page, page numbers, double space, indented paragraphs, in-text citations, a list of references used, and a common readable font at 12 points. IMPORTANT: All in-text citations of direct quotations, paraphrases, and summaries REQUIRE page numbers to be included. ***If you do not include page numbers for all in-text citations, the assignment will not be accepted.***
Be sure to edit for clarity and grammatical correctness before you hand it in.
John Stuart Mill wrote: (quotations to explain)
“One of the commonest types of character among us is that of a man all whose ambition is self-regarding; who has no higher purpose in life than to enrich or raise in the world himself and his family; who never dreams of making the good of his fellow-creatures or of his country an habitual object, further than giving away, annually or from time to time, certain sums in charity” (Mill, 1867, p. 90).
“If we wish men to practise virtue, it is worth while trying to make them love virtue, and feel it an object in itself, and not a tax paid for leave to pursue other objects. It is worth training them to feel, not only actual wrong or actual meanness, but the absence of noble aims and endeavours, as not merely blamable but also degrading: to have a feeling of the miserable smallness of mere self in the face of this great universe, of the collective mass of our fellow creatures, in the face of past history and of the indefinite future the poorness and insignificance of human life if it is to be all spent in making things comfortable for ourselves and our kin, and raising ourselves and them a step or two on the social ladder.” (Mill, 1867, pp. 90-91)
For the full address (referenced below), the first quotation is found on p. 90, and the second is on p. 91.
Mill, J. S. (1867). Inaugural address delivered to the University of St. Andrews. London, UK: Longmans,
Green, Reader and Dyer. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/inauguraladdres00millgoog
Here is the reference for the pdf version attached:
Tolstoy, L. (1886/2010). The death of Ivan Ilyich, in The death of Ivan Ilyich and other stories. (R. Pevear & L. Volokhonsky, Trans.). New York, NY: Vintage Classics,
Random House.
If you are using a different version, please reference the version you are using.