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Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the realisation of one's goals and desires, valuing independence and self-reliance, and advocating that the interests of the individual should gain precedence over the state or a social group, while opposing external interference upon one's own interests by society or institutions such as the government. Individualism is often defined in contrast to totalitarianism, collectivism and more corporate social forms.
Individualism makes the individual its focus and so starts "with the fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary importance in the struggle for liberation". Anarchism, existentialism, liberalism and libertarianism are examples of movements that take the human individual as a central unit of analysis.
Individualism has been used as a term denoting "[t]he
quality of being an individual; individuality", related to possessing
"[a]n individual characteristic; a quirk". Individualism is also associated with artistic and bohemian
interests and lifestyles where there is a tendency towards
self-creation and experimentation as opposed to tradition or popular
mass opinions and behaviors such as with humanist philosophical positions and ethics.
Etymology
In the English language, the word individualism was first introduced as a pejorative by utopian socialists such as the Owenites in the late 1830s, although it is unclear if they were influenced by Saint-Simonianism or came up with it independently. A more positive use of the term in Britain came to be used with the writings of James Elishama Smith, who was a millenarian and a Christian Israelite. Although an early follower of Robert Owen, he eventually rejected its collective idea of property and found in individualism a "universalism"
that allowed for the development of the "original genius". Without
individualism, Smith argued that individuals cannot amass property to
increase one's happiness. William Maccall, another Unitarian preacher and probably an acquaintance of Smith, came somewhat later, although influenced by John Stuart Mill, Thomas Carlyle and German Romanticism, to the same positive conclusions in his 1847 work Elements of Individualism.
Individual
An individual is a person or any specific object in a collection. In
the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics,
individual means "indivisible", typically describing any numerically
singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person" as in "The problem of proper names". From the 17th century on, individual indicates separateness, as in individualism.
Individuality is the state or quality of being an individuated being; a
person separated from everything with unique character by possessing
their own needs, goals, and desires in comparison to other persons.
Individuation principle
The principle of individuation, or principium individuationis, describes the manner in which a thing is identified as distinguished from other things. For Carl Jung, individuation is a process of transformation, whereby the personal and collective unconscious is brought into consciousness (by means of dreams, active imagination or free association
to take examples) to be assimilated into the whole personality. It is a
completely natural process necessary for the integration of the psyche
to take place. Jung considered individuation to be the central process of human development. In L'individuation psychique et collective, Gilbert Simondon
developed a theory of individual and collective individuation in which
the individual subject is considered as an effect of individuation
rather than a cause. Thus, the individual atom is replaced by a
never-ending ontological process
of individuation. Individuation is an always incomplete process, always
leaving a "pre-individual" left-over, itself making possible future
individuations. The philosophy of Bernard Stiegler draws upon and modifies the work of Gilbert Simondon on individuation and also upon similar ideas in Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. For Stiegler, "the I, as a psychic individual, can only be thought in relationship to we, which is a collective individual. The I is constituted in adopting a collective tradition, which it inherits and in which a plurality of I's acknowledge each other's existence."
Individualism and society
Individualism
holds that a person taking part in society attempts to learn and
discover what his or her own interests are on a personal basis, without a
presumed following of the interests of a societal structure (an
individualist need not be an egoist).
The individualist does not necessarily follow one particular
philosophy. He may create an amalgamation of elements of many
philosophies, based on personal interests in particular aspects that he
finds of use. On a societal level, the individualist participates on a
personally structured political and moral ground. Independent thinking
and opinion is a necessary trait of an individualist. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, claims that his concept of general will in The Social Contract
is not the simple collection of individual wills and that it furthers
the interests of the individual (the constraint of law itself would be
beneficial for the individual, as the lack of respect for the law
necessarily entails, in Rousseau's eyes, a form of ignorance and submission to one's passions instead of the preferred autonomy of reason).
Individualism versus collectivism is a common dichotomy in cross-cultural research.
Global comparative studies have found that the world's cultures vary in
the degree to which they emphasize individual autonomy, freedom and initiative (individualistic traits), respectively conformity to group norms, maintaining traditions and obedience
to in-group authority (collectivistic traits). Cultural differences
between individualism and collectivism are differences in degrees, not
in kind. Cultural individualism is strongly correlated with GDP per capita. The cultures of economically developed regions such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea,
North America and Western Europe are the most individualistic in the
world. Middle income regions such as Eastern Europe, South America and
mainland East Asia have cultures which are neither very individualistic
nor very collectivistic. The most collectivistic cultures in the world
are from economically developing regions such as the Middle East and
Northern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South and South-East Asia, Central
Asia and Central America.
An earlier analysis by Ruth Benedict in her book The Chrysanthemum and the Sword
states that societies and groups can differ in the extent to which they
are based upon predominantly "self-regarding" (individualistic, and/or
self-interested) behaviors, rather than "other-regarding"
(group-oriented, and group, or society-minded) behaviors. Ruth Benedict made a distinction, relevant in this context, between guilt societies (e.g. medieval Europe) with an "internal reference standard" and shame societies
(e.g. Japan, "bringing shame upon one's ancestors") with an "external
reference standard", where people look to their peers for feedback on
whether an action is acceptable or not.
Individualism is often contrasted either with totalitarianism or with collectivism,
but there is a spectrum of behaviors at the societal level ranging from
highly individualistic societies through mixed societies to
collectivist.
Competitive individualism
According to an Oxford Dictionary,
"competitive individualism" in sociology is "the view that achievement
and non-achievement should depend on merit. Effort and ability are
regarded as prerequisites of success. Competition is seen as an
acceptable means of distributing limited resources and rewards.
Methodological individualism
Methodological individualism
is the view that phenomena can only be understood by examining how they
result from the motivations and actions of individual agents.
In economics, people's behavior is explained in terms of rational
choices, as constrained by prices and incomes. The economist accepts
individuals' preferences as givens. Becker and Stigler provide a forceful statement of this view:
On the traditional view, an explanation of economic
phenomena that reaches a difference in tastes between people or times is
the terminus of the argument: the problem is abandoned at this point to
whoever studies and explains tastes (psychologists? anthropologists?
phrenologists? sociobiologists?). On our preferred interpretation, one
never reaches this impasse: the economist continues to search for
differences in prices or incomes to explain any differences or changes
in behavior.
Political individualism
"With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true,
beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in
accumulating things, and the symbols for things. One will live. To live
is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."
—Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism, 1891
Individualists are chiefly concerned with protecting individual
autonomy against obligations imposed by social institutions (such as the
state or religious morality). For L. Susan Brown, "Liberalism and anarchism are two political philosophies that are fundamentally concerned with individual freedom
yet differ from one another in very distinct ways. Anarchism shares
with liberalism a radical commitment to individual freedom while
rejecting liberalism's competitive property relations."
Civil libertarianism is a strain of political thought that supports civil liberties, or which emphasizes the supremacy of individual rights and personal freedoms over and against any kind of authority (such as a state, a corporation and social norms imposed through peer pressure, among others). Civil libertarianism is not a complete ideology; rather, it is a collection of views on the specific issues of civil liberties and civil rights.
Because of this, a civil libertarian outlook is compatible with many
other political philosophies, and civil libertarianism is found on both
the right and left in modern politics. For scholar Ellen Meiksins Wood, "there are doctrines of individualism that are opposed to Lockean individualism [...] and non-Lockean individualism may encompass socialism".
British historians such as Emily Robinson, Camilla Schofield,
Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Natalie Thomlinson have argued that
Britons were keen about defining and claiming their individual rights,
identities and perspectives by the 1970s, demanding greater personal
autonomy and self-determination and less outside control, angrily
complaining that the establishment was withholding it. Historians argue
that this shift in concerns helped cause Thatcherism and was incorporated into Thatcherism's appeal.
Anarchism
Within anarchism, individualist anarchism represents several traditions of thought within the anarchist movement that emphasize the individual and their will over any kinds of external determinants such as groups, society, traditions and ideological systems. Individualist anarchism is not a single philosophy but refers to a
group of individualistic philosophies that sometimes are in conflict.
In 1793, William Godwin, who has often been cited as the first anarchist, wrote Political Justice, which some consider to be the first expression of anarchism. Godwin, a philosophical anarchist, from a rationalist and utilitarian basis opposed revolutionary action and saw a minimal state as a present "necessary evil" that would become increasingly irrelevant and powerless by the gradual spread of knowledge.
Godwin advocated individualism, proposing that all cooperation in
labour be eliminated on the premise that this would be most conducive
with the general good.
An influential form of individualist anarchism called egoism, or egoist anarchism, was expounded by one of the earliest and best-known proponents of individualist anarchism, the German Max Stirner. Stirner's The Ego and Its Own, published in 1844, is a founding text of the philosophy. According to Stirner, the only limitation on the rights of the individual is their power to obtain what they desire, without regard for God, state, or morality. To Stirner, rights were spooks in the mind, and he held that society does not exist but "the individuals are its reality". Stirner advocated self-assertion and foresaw unions of egoists, non-systematic associations continually renewed by all parties' support through an act of will, which Stirner proposed as a form of organization in place of the state. Egoist anarchists claim that egoism will foster genuine and spontaneous union between individuals.
Egoist anarchism has inspired many interpretations of Stirner's
philosophy. It was re-discovered and promoted by German philosophical
anarchist and LGBT activist John Henry Mackay.
Josiah Warren is widely regarded as the first American anarchist and The Peaceful Revolutionist, the four-page weekly paper he edited during 1833, was the first anarchist periodical published. For American anarchist historian Eunice Minette Schuster, "[i]t is apparent [...] that Proudhonian Anarchism
was to be found in the United States at least as early as 1848 and that
it was not conscious of its affinity to the Individualist Anarchism of
Josiah Warren and Stephen Pearl Andrews. [...] William B. Greene presented this Proudhonian Mutualism in its purest and most systematic form". Henry David Thoreau was an important early influence in individualist anarchist thought in the United States and Europe. Thoreau was an American author, poet, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, philosopher and leading transcendentalist, who is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. Later, Benjamin Tucker fused Stirner's egoism with the economics of Warren and Proudhon in his eclectic influential publication Liberty.
From these early influences, anarchism and especially individualist anarchism was related to the issues of love and sex. In different countries, this attracted a small but diverse following of bohemian artists and intellectuals, free love and birth control advocates, individualist naturists nudists as in anarcho-naturism, freethought and anti-clerical activists as well as young anarchist outlaws in what came to be known as illegalism and individual reclamation, especially within European individualist anarchism and individualist anarchism in France. These authors and activists included Oscar Wilde, Émile Armand, Han Ryner, Henri Zisly, Renzo Novatore, Miguel Giménez Igualada, Adolf Brand and Lev Chernyi among others. In his important essay The Soul of Man Under Socialism
from 1891, Wilde defended socialism as the way to guarantee
individualism and so he saw that "[w]ith the abolition of private
property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism.
Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols for
things. One will live. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most
people exist, that is all". 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". Woodcock finds that "[t]he most ambitious contribution to literary anarchism during the 1890s was undoubtedly Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man Under Socialism" and finds that it is influenced mainly by the thought of William Godwin.
Autarchism
Autarchism promotes the principles of individualism, the moral
ideology of individual liberty and self-reliance whilst rejecting
compulsory government and supporting the elimination of government in
favor of ruling oneself to the exclusion of rule by others. Robert LeFevre, recognized as an autarchist by anarcho-capitalist Murray Rothbard, distinguished autarchism from anarchy, whose economics he felt entailed interventions contrary to freedom in contrast to his own laissez-faire economics of the Austrian School.
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of individual freedom.
This belief is widely accepted in the United States, Europe, Australia
and other Western nations, and was recognized as an important value by many Western philosophers throughout history, in particular since the Enlightenment. It is often rejected by collectivist ideas such as in Abrahamic or Confucian societies, although Taoists were and are known to be individualists. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius
wrote praising "the idea of a polity administered with regard to equal
rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government
which respects most of all the freedom of the governed".
Liberalism has its roots in the Age of Enlightenment and rejects many foundational assumptions that dominated most earlier theories of government, such as the Divine Right of Kings, hereditary status, and established religion. John Locke is often credited with the philosophical foundations of classical liberalism,
a political ideology inspired by the broader liberal movement . He
wrote "no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or
possessions."
In the 17th century, liberal ideas began to influence European
governments in nations such as the Netherlands, Switzerland, England and
Poland, but they were strongly opposed, often by armed might, by those
who favored absolute monarchy and established religion. In the 18th
century, the first modern liberal state was founded without a monarch or
a hereditary aristocracy in America. The American Declaration of Independence
includes the words which echo Locke that "all men are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to insure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Liberalism comes in many forms. According to John N. Gray, the essence of liberalism is toleration of different beliefs and of different ideas as to what constitutes a good life.
Philosophical individualism
Egoist anarchism
Egoist philosopher
Max Stirner has been called a proto-
existentialist philosopher while at the same time is a central theorist of individualist anarchism
Egoist anarchism is a school of anarchist thought that originated in the philosophy of Max Stirner, a 19th-century Hegelian
philosopher whose "name appears with familiar regularity in
historically orientated surveys of anarchist thought as one of the
earliest and best-known exponents of individualist anarchism." According to Stirner, the only limitation on the rights of the individual is their power to obtain what they desire, without regard for God, state, or morality. Stirner advocated self-assertion and foresaw unions of egoists, non-systematic associations continually renewed by all parties' support through an act of will which Stirner proposed as a form of organisation in place of the state.
Egoist anarchists argue that egoism will foster genuine and spontaneous union between individuals.
Egoism has inspired many interpretations of Stirner's philosophy, but
it has also gone beyond Stirner within anarchism. It was re-discovered
and promoted by German philosophical anarchist and LGBT activist John Henry Mackay. John Beverley Robinson wrote an essay called "Egoism" in which he states that "Modern egoism, as propounded by Stirner and Nietzsche, and expounded by Ibsen, Shaw
and others, is all these; but it is more. It is the realization by the
individual that they are an individual; that, as far as they are
concerned, they are the only individual." Stirner and Nietzsche, who exerted influence on anarchism despite its opposition, were frequently compared by French "literary anarchists" and anarchist interpretations of Nietzschean ideas appear to have also been influential in the United States.
Ethical egoism
Ethical egoism, also called simply egoism, is the normative ethical position that moral agents ought to do what is in their own self-interest. It differs from psychological egoism, which claims that people do only act in their self-interest. Ethical egoism also differs from rational egoism which holds merely that it is rational to act in one's self-interest. However, these doctrines may occasionally be combined with ethical egoism.
Ethical egoism contrasts with ethical altruism, which holds that moral agents have an obligation
to help and serve others. Egoism and altruism both contrast with
ethical utilitarianism, which holds that a moral agent should treat
one's self (also known as the subject)
with no higher regard than one has for others (as egoism does, by
elevating self-interests and "the self" to a status not granted to
others), but that one also should not (as altruism does) sacrifice one's
own interests to help others' interests, so long as one's own interests
(i.e. one's own desires or well-being) are substantially-equivalent to the others' interests and well-being. Egoism, utilitarianism, and altruism are all forms of consequentialism, but egoism and altruism contrast with utilitarianism, in that egoism and altruism are both agent-focused forms of consequentialism (i.e. subject-focused or subjective), but utilitarianism is called agent-neutral (i.e. objective and impartial)
as it does not treat the subject's (i.e. the self's, i.e. the moral
"agent's") own interests as being more or less important than if the
same interests, desires, or well-being were anyone else's.
Ethical egoism does not require moral agents to harm the
interests and well-being of others when making moral deliberation, e.g.
what is in an agent's self-interest may be incidentally detrimental,
beneficial, or neutral in its effect on others. Individualism allows for
others' interest and well-being to be disregarded or not as long as
what is chosen is efficacious in satisfying the self-interest of the
agent. Nor does ethical egoism necessarily entail
that in pursuing self-interest one ought always to do what one wants to
do, e.g. in the long term the fulfilment of short-term desires may
prove detrimental to the self. Fleeting pleasance then takes a back seat
to protracted eudaemonia. In the words of James Rachels, "[e]thical egoism [...] endorses selfishness, but it doesn't endorse foolishness."
Ethical egoism is sometimes the philosophical basis for support of libertarianism or individualist anarchism as in Max Stirner, although these can also be based on altruistic motivations.
These are political positions based partly on a belief that individuals
should not coercively prevent others from exercising freedom of action.
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to the work of a number of 19th- and
20th-century philosophers who generally held, despite profound
doctrinal differences,
that the focus of philosophical thought should be to deal with the
conditions of existence of the individual person and his or her
emotions, actions, responsibilities, and thoughts. The early 19th century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, posthumously regarded as the father of existentialism, maintained that the individual solely has the responsibilities of giving one's own life meaning and living that life passionately and sincerely, in spite of many existential obstacles and distractions including despair, angst, absurdity, alienation and boredom.
Subsequent existential philosophers retain the emphasis on the
individual, but differ in varying degrees on how one achieves and what
constitutes a fulfilling life, what obstacles must be overcome, and what
external and internal factors are involved, including the potential
consequences of the existence or non-existence of God.
Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or
academic philosophy in both style and content as too abstract and remote
from concrete human experience. Existentialism became fashionable after World War II as a way to reassert the importance of human individuality and freedom.
Freethought
Freethought holds that individuals should not accept ideas proposed as truth without recourse to knowledge and reason. Thus, freethinkers strive to build their opinions on the basis of facts, scientific inquiry and logical principles, independent of any logical fallacies or intellectually limiting effects of authority, confirmation bias, cognitive bias, conventional wisdom, popular culture, prejudice, sectarianism, tradition, urban legend and all other dogmas. Regarding religion, freethinkers hold that there is insufficient evidence to scientifically validate the existence of supernatural phenomena.
Humanism
Humanism is a perspective common to a wide range of ethical stances
that attaches importance to human dignity, concerns, and capabilities,
particularly rationality. Although the word has many senses, its meaning
comes into focus when contrasted to the supernatural or to appeals to
authority. Since the 19th century, humanism has been associated with an anti-clericalism inherited from the 18th-century Enlightenment philosophes. 21st century Humanism tends to strongly endorse human rights, including reproductive rights, gender equality, social justice, and the separation of church and state. The term covers organized non-theistic religions, secular humanism, and a humanistic life stance.
Hedonism
Philosophical hedonism is a meta-ethical theory of value which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good and pain is the only intrinsic bad.
The basic idea behind hedonistic thought is that pleasure (an umbrella
term for all inherently likable emotions) is the only thing that is good
in and of itself or by its very nature. This implies evaluating the
moral worth of character or behavior according to the extent that the
pleasure it produces exceeds the pain it entails.
Libertinism
A libertine is one devoid of most moral restraints, which are seen as
unnecessary or undesirable, especially one who ignores or even spurns
accepted morals and forms of behaviour sanctified by the larger society.
Libertines place value on physical pleasures, meaning those experienced
through the senses. As a philosophy, libertinism gained new-found
adherents in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, particularly in France and Great Britain. Notable among these were John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester and the Marquis de Sade. During the Baroque era in France, there existed a freethinking circle of philosophers and intellectuals who were collectively known as libertinage érudit and which included Gabriel Naudé, Élie Diodati and François de La Mothe Le Vayer. The critic Vivian de Sola Pinto linked John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester's libertinism to Hobbesian materialism.
Objectivism
Objectivism is a system of philosophy created by philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand which holds that reality
exists independent of consciousness; human beings gain knowledge
rationally from perception through the process of concept formation and
inductive and deductive logic; the moral purpose of one's life is the
pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest. Rand thinks the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights, embodied in pure laissez-faire capitalism; and the role of art
in human life is to transform man's widest metaphysical ideas, by
selective reproduction of reality, into a physical form – a work of
art – that he can comprehend and to which he can respond emotionally.
Objectivism celebrates man as his own hero, "with his own happiness as
the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his
noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."
Philosophical anarchism
Philosophical anarchism is an anarchist school of thought which contends that the state lacks moral legitimacy.
In contrast to revolutionary anarchism, philosophical anarchism does
not advocate violent revolution to eliminate it but advocates peaceful
evolution to superate it.
Although philosophical anarchism does not necessarily imply any action
or desire for the elimination of the state, philosophical anarchists do
not believe that they have an obligation or duty to obey the state, or
conversely that the state has a right to command.
Philosophical anarchism is a component especially of individualist anarchism. Philosophical anarchists of historical note include Mohandas Gandhi, William Godwin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Max Stirner, Benjamin Tucker and Henry David Thoreau. Contemporary philosophical anarchists include A. John Simmons and Robert Paul Wolff.
Subjectivism
Subjectivism is a philosophical tenet that accords primacy to
subjective experience as fundamental of all measure and law. In extreme
forms such as solipsism, it may hold that the nature and existence of
every object depends solely on someone's subjective awareness of it. In
the proposition 5.632 of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein
wrote: "The subject doesn't belong to the world, but it is a limit of
the world". Metaphysical subjectivism is the theory that reality is what
we perceive to be real, and that there is no underlying true reality
that exists independently of perception. One can also hold that it is consciousness rather than perception that is reality (subjective idealism). In probability,
a subjectivism stands for the belief that probabilities are simply
degrees-of-belief by rational agents in a certain proposition and which
have no objective reality in and of themselves.
Ethical subjectivism stands in opposition to moral realism, which claims that moral propositions refer to objective facts, independent of human opinion; to error theory, which denies that any moral propositions are true in any sense; and to non-cognitivism,
which denies that moral sentences express propositions at all. The most
common forms of ethical subjectivism are also forms of moral relativism, with moral standards held to be relative to each culture or society, i.e. cultural relativism, or even to every individual. The latter view, as put forward by Protagoras,
holds that there are as many distinct scales of good and evil as there
are subjects in the world. Moral subjectivism is that species of moral
relativism that relativizes moral value to the individual subject.
Horst Matthai Quelle was a Spanish language German anarchist philosopher influenced by Max Stirner. Quelle argued that since the individual gives form to the world, he is those objects, the others and the whole universe. One of his main views was a "theory of infinite worlds" which for him was developed by pre-socratic philosophers.
Solipsism
Solipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. The term comes from Latin solus ("alone") and ipse ("self"). Solipsism as an epistemological position holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. The external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not exist outside the mind. As a metaphysical
position, solipsism goes further to the conclusion that the world and
other minds do not exist. Solipsism is the only epistemological position
that, by its own postulate, is both irrefutable
and yet indefensible in the same manner. Although the number of
individuals sincerely espousing solipsism has been small, it is not
uncommon for one philosopher to accuse another's arguments of entailing
solipsism as an unwanted consequence, in a kind of reductio ad absurdum. In the history of philosophy, solipsism has served as a skeptical hypothesis.
Economic individualism
The doctrine of economic individualism holds that each individual should be allowed autonomy
in making his or her own economic decisions as opposed to those
decisions being made by the community, the corporation or the state for
him or her.
Classical liberalism
Liberalism is a political ideology that developed in the 19th century
in the Americas, England and Western Europe. It followed earlier forms
of liberalism in its commitment to personal freedom and popular
government, but differed from earlier forms of liberalism in its
commitment to classical economics and free markets.
Notable liberals in the 19th century include Jean-Baptiste Say, Thomas Malthus and David Ricardo.
Classical liberalism, sometimes also used as a label to refer to all
forms of liberalism before the 20th century, was revived in the 20th
century by Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek and further developed by Milton Friedman, Robert Nozick, Loren Lomasky and Jan Narveson.
Libertarianism
Libertarianism upholds liberty as a core principle. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, emphasizing free association, freedom of choice, individualism and voluntary association. Libertarianism shares a skepticism of authority and state power, but libertarians diverge on the scope of their opposition to existing economic and political systems. Various schools of libertarian thought offer a range of views regarding the legitimate functions of state and private power, often calling for the restriction or dissolution of coercive social institutions. Different categorizations have been used to distinguish various forms of libertarianism. This is done to distinguish libertarian views on the nature of property and capital, usually along left–right or socialist–capitalist lines.
Left-libertarianism
Left-libertarianism represents several related yet distinct
approaches to politics, society, culture and political and social theory
which stress both individual and political freedom alongside social justice. Unlike right-libertarians, left-libertarians believe that neither claiming nor mixing one's labor with natural resources is enough to generate full private property rights, and maintain that natural resources (land, oil, gold, trees) ought to be held in some egalitarian manner, either unowned or owned collectively. Those left-libertarians who support property do so under different property norms and theories, or under the condition that recompense is offered to the local or global community.
Related terms include egalitarian libertarianism, left-wing libertarianism, libertarianism, libertarian socialism, social libertarianism and socialist libertarianism. Left-libertarianism can refer generally to these related and overlapping schools of thought:
Right-libertarianism
Right-libertarianism represents either non-collectivist forms of libertarianism or a variety of different libertarian views that scholars label to the right of libertarianism such as libertarian conservatism. Related terms include conservative libertarianism, libertarian capitalism and right-wing libertarianism. In the mid-20th century, right-libertarian ideologies such as anarcho-capitalism and minarchism co-opted the term libertarian to advocate laissez-faire capitalism and strong private property rights such as in land, infrastructure and natural resources. The latter is the dominant form of libertarianism in the United States, where it advocates civil liberties, natural law, free-market capitalism and a major reversal of the modern welfare state.
In the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Peter Vallentyne
calls it right libertarianism, but he further states: "Libertarianism
is often thought of as 'right-wing' doctrine. This, however, is mistaken
for at least two reasons. First, on social – rather than economic –
issues, libertarianism tends to be 'left-wing'. It opposes laws that
restrict consensual and private sexual relationships between adults
(e.g., gay sex, non-marital sex, and deviant sex), laws that restrict
drug use, laws that impose religious views or practices on individuals,
and compulsory military service. Second, in addition to the better-known
version of libertarianism – right-libertarianism – there is also a
version known as 'left-libertarianism'. Both endorse full
self-ownership, but they differ with respect to the powers agents have
to appropriate unappropriated natural resources (land, air, water,
etc.)."
Socialism
With regard to economic questions within individualist socialist schools such as individualist anarchism, there are adherents to mutualism (Pierre Joseph Proudhon, Émile Armand and early Benjamin Tucker); natural rights positions (early Benjamin Tucker, Lysander Spooner and Josiah Warren); and egoistic disrespect for "ghosts" such as private property and markets (Max Stirner, John Henry Mackay, Lev Chernyi, later Benjamin Tucker, Renzo Novatore and illegalism). Contemporary individualist anarchist Kevin Carson
characterizes American individualist anarchism saying that "[u]nlike
the rest of the socialist movement, the individualist anarchists
believed that the natural wage of labor in a free market was its
product, and that economic exploitation could only take place when
capitalists and landlords harnessed the power of the state in their
interests. Thus, individualist anarchism was an alternative both to the
increasing statism of the mainstream socialist movement, and to a
classical liberal movement that was moving toward a mere apologetic for
the power of big business."
Libertarian socialism
Libertarian socialism, sometimes dubbed left-libertarianism and socialist libertarianism, is an anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarian tradition within the socialist movement that rejects the state socialist conception of socialism as a statist form where the state retains centralized control of the economy. Libertarian socialists criticize wage slavery relationships within the workplace, emphasizing workers' self-management of the workplace and decentralized structures of political organization.
Libertarian socialism asserts that a society based on freedom and justice can be achieved through abolishing authoritarian institutions that control certain means of production and subordinate the majority to an owning class or political and economic elite. Libertarian socialists advocate for decentralized structures based on direct democracy and federal or confederal associations such as libertarian municipalism, citizens' assemblies, trade unions and workers' councils.
All of this is generally done within a general call for liberty and free association through the identification, criticism and practical dismantling of illegitimate authority in all aspects of human life.[Within the larger socialist movement, libertarian socialism seeks to distinguish itself from Leninism and social democracy.
Past and present currents and movements commonly described as libertarian socialist include anarchism (especially anarchist schools of thought such as anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicalism, collectivist anarchism, green anarchism, individualist anarchism, mutualism, and social anarchism) as well as communalism, some forms of democratic socialism, guild socialism, libertarian Marxism (autonomism, council communism, left communism, and Luxemburgism, among others), participism, revolutionary syndicalism and some versions of utopian socialism.
Mutualism
Mutualism is an anarchist school of thought which can be traced to the writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who envisioned a socialist society where each person possess a means of production, either individually or collectively, with trade representing equivalent amounts of labor in the free market.
Integral to the scheme was the establishment of a mutual-credit bank
which would lend to producers at a minimal interest rate only high
enough to cover the costs of administration. Mutualism is based on a labor theory of value
which holds that when labor or its product is sold, it ought to receive
goods or services in exchange embodying "the amount of labor necessary
to produce an article of exactly similar and equal utility" and that
receiving anything less would be considered exploitation, theft of
labor, or usury.
Criticisms
Plato
emphasized that individuals must adhere to laws and perform duties
while declining to grant individuals rights to limit or reject state
interference in their lives.
German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel criticized individualism by claiming that human self-consciousness relies on recognition from others, therefore embracing a holistic view and rejecting the idea of the world as a collection of atomized individuals.
Fascists believe that the liberal emphasis on individual freedom produces national divisiveness.
Other views
As creative independent lifestyle
The anarchist writer and 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." In this way, individualism
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.
Anarchist writer Murray Bookchin
describes a lot of individualist anarchists 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 siècle New York, Paris, and London. As a credo, individualist
anarchism remained largely a bohemian lifestyle, most conspicuous in its
demands for sexual freedom ('free love') and enamored of innovations in art, behavior, and clothing."
In relation to this view of individuality, French individualist anarchist Émile Armand advocated egoistical
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 opined that "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.'"
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, 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 a 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."
The Russian-American poet Joseph Brodsky
once wrote that "[t]he 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." Ralph Waldo Emerson
famously declared that "[w]hoso would be a man must be a
nonconformist" – a point of view developed at length in both the life
and work of Henry David Thoreau. Equally memorable and influential on Walt Whitman
is Emerson's idea that "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small
minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."
Emerson opposed on principle the reliance on civil and religious social
structures precisely because through them the individual approaches the
divine second-hand, mediated by the once original experience of a genius
from another age. According to Emerson, "[an institution is the
lengthened shadow of one man." To achieve this original relation,
Emerson stated that one must "[i]nsist on one's self; never imitate",
for if the relationship is secondary the connection is lost.
Religion
Pope Leo XIII's letter Testem benevolentiae nostrae condemned 'Americanism', which is associated with individualism.
People in Western countries tend to be more individualistic than communitarian. The authors of one study proposed that this difference is due in part to the influence of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. They pointed specifically to its bans on incest, cousin marriage, adoption, and remarriage, and its promotion of the nuclear family over the extended family.
The Catholic Church
teaches "if we pray the Our Father sincerely, we leave individualism
behind, because the love that we receive frees us ... our divisions and
oppositions have to be overcome"
