INDIVIDUALISM April 26, 2007
Posted by wmmbb in Philosophy.trackback
Individualism, along with notions of freedom (or liberty), equality, justice, rights (and sometimes duties, if only implied), utilitarianism and rationality, is an element of liberalism, the characteristic ideology of Australian society. We may not be all liberals, but liberal ideology infuses our thinking and institutions. Liberalism is our cultural assumption. And yet assumptions can be a form of blindness, so it is worthwhile to consider whether they can stand scrutiny and from where they came. To me, individualism is the most problematic.
Actually rather than individualism, other than individual responsibility, an important qualification, I am beginning to think in terms of the power of the collective mind ( a Hegelian idea I believe) and social action, which has the possibility to be democratic, rather than individual action. Individualism, if we remember the lead up to the Renaissance was related in European history to creativity and narcissism. Innovation I thinks has at least three crucial ingredients: it works, its is creative, and it is social in nature. Someone, or some group of people hit on the geometrical idea of perspective in painting and made new forms of painting possible. So it is a strange idea disengage completely the exceptionally gifted individual from the mass of humanity.An equally strange idea is to separate ourselves from our circumstances
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