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-'''Individualism''' is a term used to describe a [[Morality|moral]], political, or social outlook that stresses human independence and the importance of individual self-reliance and liberty. Individualists promote the exercise of individual goals and desires. They oppose most external interference with an individual's choices - whether by [[society]], the [[state]], or any other group or institution. Individualism is therefore opposed to [[holism]], [[collectivism]], [[communalism]], [[statism]], [[socialism]], [[totalitarianism]], and [[communitarianism]], which stress that communal, group, societal, racial, or national goals should take priority over individual goals. Individualism is also opposed to the view that adherents to [[tradition]], institutions of [[religion]], or any other group or authority should be empowered to limit an individual's choice of actions when those actions do not violate the rights of other individuals. 
-Individualism has a controversial relationship with [[egoism]] (selfishness). While some individualists are egoists, they usually do not argue that selfishness is inherently good. Rather, some argue that individuals are not duty-bound to any socially-imposed [[morality]] and that individuals should be free to choose to be selfish (or to choose any other lifestyle) if they so desire. Others would argue that individualist goals are not selfish so long as they do not harm others. Others still, such as [[Ayn Rand]], argue against "moral relativism" and claim selfishness to be a virtue.+An '''individual''' is a [[person]] or a specific object. '''Individuality''' (or [[wikt:selfhood|selfhood]]) is the state or quality of being an individual; a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs or goals.
-== Individualism as creative independent lifestyle ==+
-The [[anarchist]] writer and [[bohemianism|bohemian]] [[Oscar Wilde]] wrote in his famous essay ''[[The Soul of Man under Socialism]]'' that "[[Art]] is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine." For anarchist historian [[George Woodcock]] "Wilde's aim in ''[[The Soul of Man under Socialism]]'' is to seek the society most favorable to the artist...for Wilde art is the supreme end, containing within itself enlightenment and regeneration, to which all else in society must be subordinated...Wilde represents the anarchist as [[aesthete]]." The word individualism in this way has been used to denote a personality with a strong tendency towards self creation and experimentation as opposed to tradition or popular mass opinions and behaviors.+From the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of [[statistics]] and [[metaphysics]], ''individual'' meant "[[divisible|indivisible]]", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person." (q.v. "The problem of [[proper name]]s"{{clarification needed|date=February 2013}}). From the seventeenth century on, ''individual'' indicates separateness, as in [[individualism]].
-Anarchist writer [[Murray Bookchin]] describes a lot of [[individualist anarchism]] as people who "expressed their opposition in uniquely personal forms, especially in fiery tracts, outrageous behavior, and aberrant lifestyles in the cultural ghettos of fin de sicle New York, Paris, and London. As a credo, individualist anarchism remained largely a [[bohemianism|bohemian]] lifestyle, most conspicuous in its demands for sexual freedom ('[[free love]]') and enamored of innovations in art, behavior, and clothing."+==Philosophical views of the individual human==
 +===Empiricism===
 +Early [[Empiricism|empiricists]] such as [[Ibn Tufail]] in early 12th century Islamic Spain, and [[John Locke]] in late 17C England, [[Hayy_ibn_Yaqdhan#Empiricism.2C_tabula_rasa.2C_nature_versus_nurture|introduced the idea]] of the individual as a [[tabula rasa]] ("blank slate"), shaped from birth by experience and education. This ties into the idea of the liberty and rights of the individual, society as a [[social contract]] between [[Rationality|rational]] individuals, and the beginnings of [[individualism]] as a doctrine.
-In relation to this view of individuality, French [[Individualist anarchist]] [[Emile Armand]] advocates [[ethical egoism|egoist]]ical denial of social conventions and dogmas to live in accord to one's own ways and desires in daily life since he emphasized anarchism as a way of life and practice. In this way he manifests "So the anarchist individualist tends to reproduce himself, to perpetuate his spirit in other individuals who will share his views and who will make it possible for a state of affairs to be established from which authoritarianism has been banished. It is this desire, this will, not only to live, but also to reproduce oneself, which we shall call "activity".+===Hegel===
 +[[Hegel]] regarded history as the gradual evolution of Mind as it tests its own concepts against the external world{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}}. Each time the mind applies its concepts to the world, the concept is revealed to be only partly true, within a certain context; thus the mind continually revises these incomplete concepts so as to reflect a fuller reality (commonly known as the process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis). The individual comes to rise above his or her own particular viewpoint, and grasps that he or she is a part of a greater whole insofar as he or she is bound to family, a social context, and/or a political order.
-In the book ''Imperfect garden : the legacy of humanism'', humanist philosopher [[Tzvetan Todorov]] identifies individualism as an important current of socio-political thought within modernity and as examples of it he mentions [[Michel de Montaigne]], [[François de La Rochefoucauld (writer)|François de La Rochefoucauld]], [[Marquis de Sade]], and [[Charles Baudelaire]] In La Rochefoucauld, he identifies a tendency similar to [[stoicism]] in which "the honest person works his being in the manner of an [[sculptor]] who searches the liberation of the forms which are inside a block of [[marble]], to extract the truth of that matter." In Baudelaire he finds the [[dandy]] trait in which one searches to cultivate "the idea of beauty within oneself, of satisfying one´s passions of feeling and thinking."+===Existentialism===
 +With the rise of [[existentialism]], [[Kierkegaard]] rejected Hegel's notion of the individual as subordinated to the forces of history. Instead, he elevated the individual's subjectivity and capacity to choose his or her own fate. Later Existentialists built upon this notion. [[Nietzsche]], for example, examines the individual's need to define his/her own self and circumstances in his concept of [[the will to power]] and the heroic ideal of the [[Übermensch]]. The individual is also central to [[Sartre]]'s philosophy, which emphasizes individual authenticity, responsibility, and [[free will]]. In both Sartre and Nietzsche (and in [[Nikolai Berdyaev]]), the individual is called upon to create his or her own values. Rather than rely on external, socially imposed codes of morality.
-The [[Russian American|Russian-American]] poet [[Joseph Brodsky]] one manifested that "The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even—if you will—eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked, imitated; something even a seasoned imposter couldn't be happy with."+===Buddhism===
 +In [[Buddhism]], the concept of the individual lies in [[anatman]], or "no-self." According to anatman, the individual is really a series of interconnected processes that, working together, give the appearance of being a single, separated whole. In this way, anatman, together with [[anicca]], resembles a kind of [[bundle theory]]. Instead of an atomic, indivisible self distinct from reality (see [[Subject-object problem]]), the individual in Buddhism is understood as an interrelated part of an ever-changing, impermanent universe (see [[interdependence]], [[Nondualism]], [[reciprocity (social psychology)|reciprocity]]).
 + 
 +===Objectivism===
 +[[Ayn Rand]]'s [[Objectivism (Ayn Rand)|Objectivism]] regards every human as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his or her own life, a right derived from his or her nature as a rational being. Individualism and Objectivism hold that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful coexistence among humans, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of [[individual rights]] — and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members. The principle of individual rights is the only moral base of all groups or associations. Since only an individual man or woman can possess rights, the expression "individual rights" is a redundancy (which one has to use for purposes of clarification in today’s intellectual chaos), but the expression "[[collective rights]]" is a contradiction in terms. Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a [[Tyranny of the majority|majority]] has no right to vote away the rights of a [[minority group|minority]]; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
 + 
 +==Biology==
 +In biology, the question of what is an individual is related to the question of what is an [[organism]], which is an important question in [[biology]] and [[philosophy of biology]], but there has been little explicit work devoted to the biological notion of an individual. An individual organism is not the only kind of individual that is considered as a "unit of [[selection]]". [[Gene]]s, [[genome]]s, or groups may function as individual units.
==See also== ==See also==
-* [[Conformity]]+ 
-* [[Decadence]]+* [[Action theory (philosophy)|Action theory]]
-* [[Individuation]]+* [[Atom (disambiguation)]]
-* [[Voluntaryism]]+* [[Consciousness]]
 +* [[Cultural identity]]
 +* [[Existentialism]]
 +* [[Identity (social science)|Identity]]
 +* [[Independence|Independent]]
 +* [[Person]]
 +* [[Self (philosophy)]]
 +* [[Self (psychology)]]
 +* [[Self (sociology)]]
 +* [[Self (spirituality)]]
 +* [[Structure and agency]]
 +* [[Will (philosophy)]]
 + 
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An individual is a person or a specific object. Individuality (or selfhood) is the state or quality of being an individual; a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs or goals.

From the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics, individual meant "indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person." (q.v. "The problem of proper names"Template:Clarification needed). From the seventeenth century on, individual indicates separateness, as in individualism.

Contents

Philosophical views of the individual human

Empiricism

Early empiricists such as Ibn Tufail in early 12th century Islamic Spain, and John Locke in late 17C England, introduced the idea of the individual as a tabula rasa ("blank slate"), shaped from birth by experience and education. This ties into the idea of the liberty and rights of the individual, society as a social contract between rational individuals, and the beginnings of individualism as a doctrine.

Hegel

Hegel regarded history as the gradual evolution of Mind as it tests its own concepts against the external worldTemplate:Citation needed. Each time the mind applies its concepts to the world, the concept is revealed to be only partly true, within a certain context; thus the mind continually revises these incomplete concepts so as to reflect a fuller reality (commonly known as the process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis). The individual comes to rise above his or her own particular viewpoint, and grasps that he or she is a part of a greater whole insofar as he or she is bound to family, a social context, and/or a political order.

Existentialism

With the rise of existentialism, Kierkegaard rejected Hegel's notion of the individual as subordinated to the forces of history. Instead, he elevated the individual's subjectivity and capacity to choose his or her own fate. Later Existentialists built upon this notion. Nietzsche, for example, examines the individual's need to define his/her own self and circumstances in his concept of the will to power and the heroic ideal of the Übermensch. The individual is also central to Sartre's philosophy, which emphasizes individual authenticity, responsibility, and free will. In both Sartre and Nietzsche (and in Nikolai Berdyaev), the individual is called upon to create his or her own values. Rather than rely on external, socially imposed codes of morality.

Buddhism

In Buddhism, the concept of the individual lies in anatman, or "no-self." According to anatman, the individual is really a series of interconnected processes that, working together, give the appearance of being a single, separated whole. In this way, anatman, together with anicca, resembles a kind of bundle theory. Instead of an atomic, indivisible self distinct from reality (see Subject-object problem), the individual in Buddhism is understood as an interrelated part of an ever-changing, impermanent universe (see interdependence, Nondualism, reciprocity).

Objectivism

Ayn Rand's Objectivism regards every human as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his or her own life, a right derived from his or her nature as a rational being. Individualism and Objectivism hold that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful coexistence among humans, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of individual rights — and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members. The principle of individual rights is the only moral base of all groups or associations. Since only an individual man or woman can possess rights, the expression "individual rights" is a redundancy (which one has to use for purposes of clarification in today’s intellectual chaos), but the expression "collective rights" is a contradiction in terms. Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

Biology

In biology, the question of what is an individual is related to the question of what is an organism, which is an important question in biology and philosophy of biology, but there has been little explicit work devoted to the biological notion of an individual. An individual organism is not the only kind of individual that is considered as a "unit of selection". Genes, genomes, or groups may function as individual units.

See also





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