Individualism
Individualism is a philosophical and social concept that emphasizes the importance of the individual over the collective group or state, advocating for personal autonomy, self-reliance, and individual freedom. This doctrine promotes the pursuit of personal goals, desires, and self-fulfillment, often positioning the individual as central to moral, political, and social discussions. While individualism is often contrasted with collectivism and totalitarianism, it has been associated with both positive and negative connotations throughout history. Critics have linked it to self-absorption and selfishness, while proponents argue that it fosters creativity, personal development, and democratic values.
Historically, individualism gained prominence in the 19th century, influenced by thinkers such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The concept has evolved, encompassing diverse interpretations and connections to other philosophies like existentialism and classical liberalism. Key figures like Alexis de Tocqueville have noted the dual nature of individualism, acknowledging its potential to both empower and alienate individuals within society. Contemporary discussions continue to explore the balance between individual rights and communal responsibilities, as well as the role of education in nurturing individuality. Ultimately, individualism reflects a complex interplay between personal identity and collective existence, inviting ongoing debate about its implications for society.
Individualism
Individualism, a term often used in contrast with collectivism and totalitarianism, prioritizes the needs of the individual—morally, politically, socially and ideologically—to the extent that the total worth of each individual increases and each begins to practice and value their personal aims, goals, dreams and desires more than the collective good of the state. Individualism advocates that the individual is primary and the state secondary. In this doctrine, self-reliance and individual freedom take precedence over the interests of the institution, society, cultural group, or the state. Other philosophies that share some governing principles with individualism including anarchism, existentialism, and classical liberalism. Individualism tends to promote unconventional lifestyles and cultivate appreciation of artistic endeavours while expanding tendencies toward experimentation and self-creation. The term came into disrepute and attracted negative connotations among socialists and conservative intellectuals during the nineteenth century.
Brief History
Before the seventeenth century, there was no particular connotation of separateness associated with the term individual, which was used in discussions of metaphysics and statistics and as a simple reference to a person. It was first used for collective tendencies of division of minds and for the infinitive doctrines of fragmentation by Joseph de Maistre in 1820. Individualism became popular as a concept in the nineteenth century, and it assumed heterogeneity of meanings in many ways within different contexts. However, initially, it was used as opprobrium, in a negative sense. The French term individualisme reflected European reaction to French revolutionary enlightenment thought and carried many negative connotations, such as egoism, egotism, hedonism, self-absorption, opportunism, and vanity. The stability of the British Commonwealth was perceived to be in danger when the individual was exalted, consequently imperiling the Victorian society.
Alexis de Tocqueville, in his Democracy in America (1835/1840), referred to individualism as a newly coined lexicon; he was of an opinion that it was a good thing that our ancestors did not know it. However, he made a distinction between the term individualism and selfishness per se, and he stated that selfishness is guided by the blind instinct, whereas individualism is a mature and pleasant feeling. Interestingly, Tocqueville further points out a paradox associated with individualism—though its origin is democratic, he says, yet it may also work against democracy when it is applied in the extreme form and people stop identifying commonness for each other.
Some Unitarian thinkers consider the individualistic philosophy a reaction to socialism and the Commonwealth. Edmund Burke (1729–97) scornfully associated it with a private type of reason, whereas Maistre feared that the societal order would collapse if too much freedom was given to individual opinions in place of religion. From March 1845 to 1846, William Maccall conducted a series of lectures on the elements of individualism believing that it would bring moral and spiritual reformation of society.
Overview
Many common views of individualism equate it with alienation, egoism, self-interest, hedonism, and selfish behavior. Self-fulfillment becomes the main goal in life and self-interest the favorite means to achieve it. However, according to Maccall, the highest and noblest characteristic is to be an individual first, and then rich or poor, fortunate or unfortunate, Christian or Jew, famous or obscure, healthy or sick. Further, he argues that the greatest attribute of every human is their individuality, and it is the individual's mission to develop wholly and harmoniously.
Ronald Inglehart claims that individualistic attitudes have a positive relationship at national level, and the belief in democratic values goes hand in hand with individualism at the individual level as well as at the national level. In a similar vein, Maccall states that government can best realize its objectives through harmonizing them with the evolving vitality of conflicting interests, such as activities, tendencies, and opinions of the community. National education can become a national blessing only by recognizing and developing the powers of the individuals.
Other theorists, such as Carl Jung (1875–1961), Gilbert Simondon (1924–89), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900,), and Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), have also propounded their theories in their respective fields, supporting the values of individualism. A description of how an individual thing is different from and similar to other things is aptly made in the principle of individuation: "I" as individual can only be realized fully with relation to "we" the collective: the psychic individual finds its form and meaning in the collective individual. Bernard Stiegler believes that "I" is constituted from the elements of "many I's" that "I" inherits and adopts during its existence. Jung talks about collective and personal consciousness and states that consciousness comes into being through the assimilation of free association and active imagination. Simondon theorizes that an individual subject should be considered as an effect rather than as a cause. Nietzsche's work on existentialism and Freud's work on the interpretation of dreams influenced Stiegler's theory of individuation.
Steven Lukes considers that hedonism and achievement orientation are not the ideals and values of individualism. Instead, he believes that self-development, privacy, and autonomy are the considerable ideals for which individuals ought to live and strive for. Similarly, George Kateb considers individualism to be a set of practices and a normative doctrine for people to engage in. Many people can practice it within democratic values. However, a few may find an antidemocratic variant to rationalize their self-assertions. Maccall believes that in the individual and their education lie humanity and the education of humanity because the beautiful, the good, and the true are one, and they are not supposed to be "torn asunder and mutilated" for the sake of each other. Further, he believes that if the doctrine of individualism carries out fully, it will prove to be the greatest blessing to humanity.
Bibliography
Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Edited with an introduction and notes by Paul Guyer,Oxford UP, 2015.
Inglehart, Ronald, and Christian Welzel. Modernization, Cultural Change and Democracy, the Human Development Sequence. Cambridge UP, 2005.
Kateb, George. "Democratic Individualism and Its Critics." Annual Review of Political Science, vol. 6, June 2003, pp. 275–305.
Lukes, Steven. Individualism. Blackwell, 1973.
Lukes, Steven M. "Individualism." Britannica, 30 Aug. 2024, www.britannica.com/topic/individualism. Accessed 27 Sept. 2024.
Maccall, William. The Elements of Individualism: A Series of Lectures. Books on Demand, 2015.
Maistre, Joseph M. The Works of Joseph De Maistre. Translated by Jack Lively, Macmillan, 1965.
Simondon, Gilbert, and Drew Burk. Two Lessons on Animal and Man. Univocal, 2011.
Stiegler, Bernard. The Lost Spirit of Capitalism. Translated by Daniel Ross, Polity Press, 2014.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. Translated by James T. Schleifer, edited by Eduardo Nolla, Liberty Fund, 2014. 2 vols.