Misplaced Pages

#575424

143-496: Individualism is often defined in contrast to communitarianism , collectivism and corporatism . 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. It

286-456: 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

429-568: A millenarian -turned-socialist and Christian Israelite . Although an early follower of Robert Owen , he eventually rejected Owen's 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

572-421: A moral nihilist , however, may fail to encapsulate certain subtleties of his ethical thought. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states, "Stirner is clearly committed to the non-nihilistic view that certain kinds of character and modes of behaviour (namely autonomous individuals and actions) are to be valued above all others. His conception of morality is, in this respect, a narrow one, and his rejection of

715-498: A birthright. Alternatively, some agree that negative rights may be violated by a government action, but argue that it is justifiable if the positive rights protected outweigh the negative rights lost. Still, other communitarians question the very idea of natural rights and their place in a properly functioning community. They claim that instead, claims of rights and entitlements create a society unable to form cultural institutions and grounded social norms based on shared values. Rather,

858-756: 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

1001-423: A collection of interactions , among a community of people in a given place (geographical location), or among a community who share an interest or who share a history. Communitarianism is often contrasted with individualism , and opposes laissez-faire policies that deprioritize the stability of the overall community. The philosophy of communitarianism originated in the 20th century, but the term "communitarian"

1144-408: A critic of communitarians, recognizes this feature of the responsive communitarians, writing that some communitarians do "recognize the need for careful evaluation of what is good and bad about [any specific] tradition and the possibility of severing certain features . . . from others." And R. Bruce Douglass writes, "Unlike conservatives, communitarians are aware that the days when the issues we face as

1287-418: 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. "With

1430-431: 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

1573-560: 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,

SECTION 10

#1732775714576

1716-411: A form of superiority over the common masses, which the priestly valuation, in ressentiment of power, seeks to invert—where the powerless and pitiable become the moral ideal. This upholding of unegoistic actions is therefore seen as stemming from a desire to reject the superiority or excellency of others. He holds that all normative systems which operate in the role often associated with morality favor

1859-671: A key role in Tony Blair's remaking of the British socialist Labour Party into "New Labour" and a smaller role in President Bill Clinton's campaigns. Other politicians have echoed key communitarian themes, such as Hillary Clinton, who has long held that to raise a child takes not just parents, family, friends and neighbors, but a whole "village". It has also been suggested that the compassionate conservatism espoused by President Bush during his 2000 presidential campaign

2002-402: A kind of reductio ad absurdum . In the history of philosophy, solipsism has served as a skeptical hypothesis . The doctrine of economic individualism holds that each individual should be allowed autonomy in making their own economic decisions as opposed to those decisions being made by the community, the corporation or the state for him or her. Communitarianism Communitarianism

2145-459: A measure of commitment to a set of shared values, norms, and meanings, and a shared history and identity – in short, a particular culture. Further, author David E. Pearson argued that "[t]o earn the appellation 'community,' it seems to me, groups must be able to exert moral suasion and extract a measure of compliance from their members. That is, communities are necessarily, indeed, by definition, coercive as well as moral, threatening their members with

2288-422: 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

2431-441: A person taking part in society attempts to learn and discover what their 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. They may create an amalgamation of elements of many philosophies, based on personal interests in particular aspects that they find of use. On

2574-428: A predecessor to Nazism and a substantial academic effort was necessary to disassociate his ideas from their aforementioned appropriation. At first sight, Nazi totalitarianism may seem the opposite of Stirner's radical individualism. But fascism was above all an attempt to dissolve the social ties created by history and replace them by artificial bonds among individuals who were expected to render explicit obedience to

2717-517: A range of disparate ideas and can generally be categorized into descriptive or normative forms. That is, they may be interested in either describing that people do act in self-interest or prescribing that they should . Other definitions of egoism may instead emphasise action according to one's will rather than one's self-interest, and furthermore posit that this is a truer sense of egoism. The New Catholic Encyclopedia states of egoism that it "incorporates in itself certain basic truths: it

2860-502: A reaction to excessive individualism, understood as an undue emphasis on individual rights, leading people to become selfish or egocentric. The close relation between the individual and the community was discussed on a theoretical level by Michael Sandel and Charles Taylor , among other academic communitarians, in their criticisms of philosophical liberalism, especially the work of the American liberal theorist John Rawls and that of

3003-508: A shared moral culture. Some academic communitarians argued even more strongly on behalf of such particularistic values, suggesting that these were the only kind of values which matter and that it is a philosophical error to posit any truly universal moral values. In addition to Charles Taylor and Michael Sandel, other thinkers sometimes associated with academic communitarianism include Michael Walzer , Alasdair MacIntyre , Seyla Benhabib , Shlomo Avineri , and Patrick J. Deneen . Beginning in

SECTION 20

#1732775714576

3146-497: 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

3289-473: A society could be settled on the basis of the beliefs of a privileged segment of the population have long since passed." One major way the communitarian position differs from the social conservative one is that although communitarianism's ideal "good society" reaches into the private realm, it seeks to cultivate only a limited set of core virtues through an organically developed set of values rather than having an expansive or holistically normative agenda given by

3432-443: 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

3575-598: A way to reassert the importance of human individuality and freedom. Nietzsche's concept of the superman is closely related to the idea of individualism and the pursuit of one's own unique path and potential. As is seen in the following quote, the concept of superman reflects Nietzsche's emphasis on the need to overcome traditional moral and societal norms in order to achieve personal growth and self-realization: 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

3718-767: Is a consequentialist form of ethical egoism which holds that egoism is morally right if it leads to morally acceptable ends. John F. Welsh, in his work Max Stirner's Dialectical Egoism: A New Interpretation , coins the term dialectical egoism to describe an interpretation of the egoist philosophy of Max Stirner as being fundamentally dialectical . Normative egoism, as in the case of Stirner, need not reject that some modes of behavior are to be valued above others—such as Stirner's affirmation that non-restriction and autonomy are to be most highly valued. Contrary theories, however, may just as easily favour egoistic domination of others. Stirner's egoism argues that individuals are impossible to fully comprehend, as no understanding of

3861-430: 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

4004-488: 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

4147-424: Is a philosophy that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community . Its overriding philosophy is based on the belief that a person's social identity and personality are largely molded by community relationships, with a smaller degree of development being placed on individualism . Although the community might be a family, communitarianism usually is understood, in the wider, philosophical sense, as

4290-486: 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

4433-472: Is a spectrum of behaviors at the societal level ranging from highly individualistic societies through mixed societies to collectivist. 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

Individualism - Misplaced Pages Continue

4576-429: 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

4719-403: 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

4862-599: Is also associated with humanist philosophical positions and ethics. 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 ,

5005-402: Is by causing humans to be non -selfish, in the psychological sense." This is a central topic within contemporary discourse of psychological egoism. The history of egoist thought has often overlapped with that of nihilism . For example, Max Stirner's rejection of absolutes and abstract concepts often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. The popular description of Stirner as

5148-488: 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

5291-666: Is considered the first political party in the world which has declared communitarianism as one of their official ideologies. Early communitarians were charged with being, in effect, social conservatives. However, many contemporary communitarians, especially those who define themselves as responsive communitarians, fully realize and often stress that they do not seek to return to traditional communities, with their authoritarian power structure, rigid stratification, and discriminatory practices against minorities and women. Responsive communitarians seek to build communities based on open participation, dialogue, and truly shared values. Linda McClain ,

5434-477: 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

5577-414: 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

5720-470: Is highly critical of the increasing dogmatism and oppressive social institutions that embody it. In order that it might be surpassed, egoist principles are upheld as a necessary advancement beyond the modern world. The Stanford Encyclopedia states that Stirner's historical analyses serve to "undermine historical narratives which portray the modern development of humankind as the progressive realisation of freedom, but also to support an account of individuals in

5863-570: Is influenced mainly by the thought of William Godwin . 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

Individualism - Misplaced Pages Continue

6006-566: Is natural for man to love himself; he should moreover do so, since each one is ultimately responsible for himself; pleasure, the development of one's potentialities, and the acquisition of power are normally desirable." The moral censure of self-interest is a common subject of critique in egoist philosophy, with such judgments being examined as means of control and the result of power relations. Egoism may also reject that insight into one's internal motivation can arrive extrinsically, such as from psychology or sociology , though, for example, this

6149-573: Is not present in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche . The term egoism is derived from the French égoïsme , from the Latin ego (first person singular personal pronoun; "I") with the French -ïsme (" -ism "). The descriptive variants of egoism are concerned with self-regard as a factual description of human motivation and, in its furthest application, that all human motivation stems from

6292-551: 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

6435-447: Is partly constructed by culture and social relations, there is no coherent way of formulating individual rights or interests in abstraction from social contexts. Thus, according to these communitarians, there is no point in attempting to found a theory of justice on principles decided behind Rawls' veil of ignorance , because individuals cannot exist in such an abstracted state, even in principle. Academic communitarians also contend that

6578-475: Is possible, the willed action necessarily becomes egoistic in serving one's own will . In contrast to this and philosophical egoism, biological egoism (also called evolutionary egoism) describes motivations rooted solely in reproductive self-interest (i.e. reproductive fitness ). Furthermore, selfish gene theory holds that it is the self-interest of genetic information that conditions human behaviour. Theories which hold egoism to be normative stipulate that

6721-544: 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 is a term applied to the work of a number of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who generally held, despite profound doctrinal differences, that

6864-451: Is strongly correlated with GDP per capita and venture capital investments. 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

7007-421: Is that by providing such rights, communitarians violate the negative rights of the citizens; rights to not have something done for you. For example, taxation to pay for such programs as described above dispossesses individuals of property. Proponents of positive rights, by attributing the protection of negative rights to the society rather than the government, respond that individuals would not have any rights in

7150-480: Is the concept of positive rights , which are rights or guarantees to certain things. These may include state-subsidized education, state-subsidized housing, a safe and clean environment, universal health care, and even the right to a job with the concomitant obligation of the government or individuals to provide one. To this end, communitarians generally support social security programs, public works programs, and laws limiting such things as pollution. A common objection

7293-410: 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. A libertine

SECTION 50

#1732775714576

7436-569: Is the reaction of some intellectuals to the problems of Western society, an attempt to find flexible forms of balance between the individual and society, the autonomy of the individual and the interests of the community, between the common good and freedom, rights, and duties. Whereas the classical liberalism of the Enlightenment can be viewed as a reaction to centuries of authoritarianism, oppressive government, overbearing communities, and rigid dogma, modern communitarianism can be considered

7579-449: 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

7722-438: 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

7865-446: Is toleration of different beliefs and of different ideas as to what constitutes a good life. Liberalism generally values differing political opinions, even if they clash and cause discord. 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

8008-588: 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 and Montesquieu are often credited with the philosophical foundations of classical liberalism , a political ideology inspired by the broader liberal movement. Locke wrote that "no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions." In

8151-531: The Austrian School . Liberalism is thought "that attaches [and advances the] importance...[of]...the civil and political rights of individuals and their freedoms of speech and expression ." 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

8294-762: The Blue Dog Coalition . It is quite possible that the United States' right-libertarian ideological underpinnings have suppressed major communitarian factions from emerging. Dana Milbank , writing in The Washington Post , remarked of modern communitarians, "There is still no such thing as a card-carrying communitarian, and therefore no consensus on policies. Some, such as John DiIulio and outside Bush adviser Marvin Olasky , favor religious solutions for communities, while others, like Etzioni and Galston, prefer secular approaches." In August 2011,

8437-627: The European Union . Whether truly supra-national communities can be developed is far from clear. More modern communities can take many different forms, but are often limited in scope and reach. For example, members of one residential community are often also members of other communities – such as work, ethnic, or religious ones. As a result, modern community members have multiple sources of attachments, and if one threatens to become overwhelming, individuals will often pull back and turn to another community for their attachments. Thus, communitarianism

8580-623: 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

8723-467: The New Testament . Communitarianism has been traced back to early monasticism . A number of early sociologists had strongly communitarian elements in their work, such as Ferdinand Tönnies in his comparison of Gemeinschaft (oppressive but nurturing communities) and Gesellschaft (liberating but impersonal societies), and Emile Durkheim 's concerns about the integrating role of social values and

SECTION 60

#1732775714576

8866-475: 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 people. 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

9009-508: 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 the United States of America. The US Declaration of Independence includes

9152-716: The 1860–1917 revolutionary movement in Russia, which resulted in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II eight years before his death in 1889. Dmitry Pisarev was a similarly radical influence within the movement, though he did not personally advocate political revolution. Philosophical egoism has also found wide appeal among anarchist revolutionaries and thinkers, such as John Henry Mackay , Benjamin Tucker , Émile Armand , Han Ryner Gérard de Lacaze-Duthiers , Renzo Novatore , Miguel Giménez Igualada , and Lev Chernyi . Though he did not involve in any revolutionary movements himself,

9295-412: 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. Philosophical hedonism is a meta-ethical theory of value which argues that pleasure

9438-498: The 1960s. Among those who raised these issues were Robert Nisbet (Twilight of Authority), Robert N. Bellah Habits of the Heart , and Alan Ehrenhalt (The Lost City: The Forgotten Virtues Of Community In America). In his book Bowling Alone (2000), Robert Putnam documented the decline of "social capital" and stressed the importance of "bridging social capital," in which bonds of connectedness are formed across diverse social groups. In

9581-412: 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. Within anarchism, individualist anarchism represents several traditions of thought within the anarchist movement that emphasize

9724-501: The 2008 presidential election campaign he repeatedly called upon Americans to "ground our politics in the notion of a common good," for an "age of responsibility," and for foregoing identity politics in favor of community-wide unity building. However, for many in the West, the term communitarian conjures up authoritarian and collectivist associations, so many public leaders – and even several academics considered champions of this school – avoid

9867-556: 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

10010-626: The German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant . They argued that contemporary liberalism failed to account for the complex set of social relations that all individuals in the modern world are a part of. Liberalism is rooted in an untenable ontology that posits the existence of generic individuals and fails to account for social embeddedness. To the contrary, they argued, there are no generic individuals but rather only Germans or Russians, Berliners or Muscovites, or members of some other particularistic community. Because individual identity

10153-681: The United States. 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

10296-462: 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

10439-409: The absence of societies—a central tenet of communitarianism—and thus have a responsibility to give something back to it. Some have viewed this as a negation of natural rights . However, what is or is not a "natural right" is a source of contention in modern politics, as well as historically; for example, whether or not universal health care, private property or protection from polluters can be considered

10582-421: 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

10725-555: The benefit of others, it describes only such when in accordance with reproductive self-interest. Kin altruism and selfish gene theory are examples of this division. On biological altruism, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states: "Contrary to what is often thought, an evolutionary approach to human behaviour does not imply that humans are likely to be motivated by self-interest alone. One strategy by which ‘selfish genes’ may increase their future representation

10868-562: The common good and that of autonomy and rights, neither of which in principle should take precedence over the other. This can be contrasted with other political and social philosophies which derive their core assumptions from one overarching principle (such as liberty/autonomy for libertarianism). It further posits that a good society is based on a carefully crafted balance between liberty and social order, between individual rights and personal responsibility, and between pluralistic and socially established values. Responsive communitarianism stresses

11011-619: The communitarian philosophy from a small academic group, introduced it into public life, and recast its philosophical content. Deeming themselves "responsive communitarians" in order to distinguish the movement from authoritarian communitarians, Etzioni and Galston, along with a varied group of academics (including Mary Ann Glendon , Thomas A. Spragens, James Fishkin, Benjamin Barber, Hans Joas, Philip Selznick, and Robert N. Bellah , among others) drafted and published The Responsive Communitarian Platform based on their shared political principles, and

11154-428: The concept of ownership is only that personal distinction made between what is one's property and what is not. Consequentially, it is the exercise of control over property which constitutes the nonabstract possession of it. In contrast to this, Ayn Rand incorporates capitalist property rights into her egoist theory. Egoist philosopher Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevskii was the dominant intellectual figure behind

11297-530: The desires and interest of the ego. In these theories, action which is self-regarding may be simply termed egoistic . The position that people tend to act in their own self-interest is called default egoism, whereas psychological egoism is the position that all motivations are rooted in an ultimately self-serving psyche . That is, in its strong form, that even seemingly altruistic actions are only disguised as such and are always self-serving. Its weaker form instead holds that, even if altruistic motivation

11440-416: The development of human excellence. Max Stirner 's own conception, the union of egoists as detailed in his work The Ego and Its Own , saw a proposed form of societal relations whereby limitations on egoistic action are rejected. When posthumously adopted by the anarchist movement , this became the foundation for egoist anarchism . Stirner's variant of property theory is similarly dialectical, where

11583-538: The dignity of each and every person to pursue life as they see fit. Mistakes in securing the proper means and appropriate ends will be made by individuals, but if they are morally responsible for their actions they not only will bear the consequences but also the opportunity for adapting and learning. In contrast with this however, such an ethic may not morally obligate against the egoistic exercise of power over others. On these grounds, Friedrich Nietzsche criticizes egalitarian morality and political projects as unconducive to

11726-416: 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

11869-1011: 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

12012-442: The ego ought to promote its own interests above other values. Where this ought is held to be a pragmatic judgment it is termed rational egoism and where it is held to be a moral judgment it is termed ethical egoism . The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that "ethical egoism might also apply to things other than acts, such as rules or character traits" but that such variants are uncommon. Furthermore, conditional egoism

12155-537: 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

12298-519: 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

12441-594: The entire school of individualist anarchism owes much of its intellectual heritage to Max Stirner . Egoist philosophy may be misrepresented as a principally revolutionary field of thought. However, neither Hobbesian nor Nietzschean theories of egoism approve of political revolution. Anarchism and revolutionary socialism were also strongly rejected by Ayn Rand and her followers. The philosophies of both Nietzsche and Stirner were heavily appropriated (or possibly expropriated) by fascist and proto-fascist ideologies. Nietzsche in particular has infamously been represented as

12584-432: The existence of supernatural phenomena. 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

12727-432: 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

12870-603: The focus of philosophical thought should be to deal with the conditions of existence of the individual person and their 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

13013-581: 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

13156-410: The good, but the scope of this good is much smaller than that advanced by authoritarian societies." Liberal theorists, such as Simon Caney, disagree that philosophical communitarianism has any interesting criticisms to make of liberalism. They reject the communitarian charges that liberalism neglects the value of community, and holds an "atomized" or asocial view of the self. According to Peter Sutch

13299-451: The government should not seek to replace local communities, it may need to empower them by strategies of support, including revenue-sharing and technical assistance. There is a great need for study and experimentation with creative use of the structures of civil society, and public-private cooperation, especially where the delivery of health, educational and social services are concerned. Important to some supporters of communitarian philosophy

13442-514: The ideas in it were eventually elaborated in academic and popular books and periodicals, gaining thereby a measure of political currency in the West. Etzioni later formed the Communitarian Network to study and promote communitarian approaches to social issues and began publishing a quarterly journal, The Responsive Community . The main thesis of responsive communitarianism is that people face two major sources of normativity: that of

13585-520: The importance of society and its institutions above and beyond that of the state and the market, which are often the focus of other political philosophies. It also emphasizes the key role played by socialization, moral culture, and informal social controls rather than state coercion or market pressures. It provides an alternative to liberal individualism and a major counterpoint to authoritarian communitarianism by stressing that strong rights presume strong responsibilities and that one should not be neglected in

13728-420: The inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other". According to Putnam and his followers, social capital is a key component to building and maintaining democracy. Communitarians seek to bolster social capital and the institutions of civil society . The Responsive Communitarian Platform described it thus: Many social goals require partnerships between public and private groups. Though

13871-402: 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

14014-773: 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

14157-425: The informal sanction of others, built into a web of informal affect-laden relationships, which communities provide. Responsive communitarians have been playing a considerable public role, presenting themselves as the founders of a different kind of environmental movement, one dedicated to shoring up society (as opposed to the state) rather than nature. Like environmentalism, communitarianism appeals to audiences across

14300-447: The interests of some people, often, though not necessarily, at the expense of others. Nevertheless, Nietzsche also states in the same book that there is no 'doer' of any acts, be they selfish or not: Jonas Monte of Brigham Young University argues that Nietzsche doubted if any 'I' existed in the first place, which the former defined as "a conscious Ego who commands mental states". In 1851, French philosopher Auguste Comte coined

14443-487: The late 20th century, many authors began to observe a deterioration in the social networks of the United States. In the book Bowling Alone , Robert Putnam observed that nearly every form of civic organization has undergone drops in membership exemplified by the fact that, while more people are bowling than in the 1950s, there are fewer bowling leagues. This results in a decline in " social capital ", described by Putnam as "the collective value of all ' social networks ' and

14586-562: The legitimacy of moral claims is not to be confused with a denial of the propriety of all normative or ethical judgement." Stirner's nihilism may instead be understood as cosmic nihilism . Likewise, both normative and descriptive theories of egoism further developed under Russian nihilism , shortly giving birth to rational egoism . Nihilist philosophers Dmitry Pisarev and Nikolay Chernyshevsky were influential in this regard, compounding such forms of egoism with hard determinism . Max Stirner's philosophy strongly rejects modernity and

14729-567: The liberalist claim to individual rights leads to a morality centered on individual emotivism, as ethical issues can no longer be solved by working through common understandings of the good. The worry here is that not only is society individualized, but so are moral claims. In the early 1990s, in response to the perceived breakdown in the moral fabric of society engendered by excessive individualism, Amitai Etzioni and William A. Galston began to organize working meetings to think through communitarian approaches to key societal issues. This ultimately took

14872-500: 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

15015-477: The modern world as increasingly oppressed". This critique of humanist discourses especially has linked Stirner to more contemporary poststructuralist thought. Since normative egoism rejects the moral obligation to subordinate the ego to society -at-large or to a ruling class , it may be predisposed to certain political implications. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy states: Egoists ironically can be read as moral and political egalitarians glorifying

15158-488: The moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." 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

15301-413: The name of the other. Following standing sociological positions, communitarians assume that the moral character of individuals tends to degrade over time unless that character is continually and communally reinforced. They contend that a major function of the community, as a building block of moral infrastructure, is to reinforce the character of its members through the community's "moral voice", defined as

15444-465: The nature of the political community is misunderstood by liberalism. Where liberal philosophers described the polity as a neutral framework of rules within which a multiplicity of commitments to moral values can coexist, academic communitarians argue that such a thin conception of political community was both empirically misleading and normatively dangerous. Good societies, these authors believe, rest on much more than neutral rules and procedures—they rely on

15587-403: 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.

15730-596: The political spectrum, although it has found greater acceptance with some groups than others. Although communitarianism is a small philosophical school, it has had considerable influence on public dialogues and politics. There are strong similarities between communitarian thinking and the Third Way, the political thinking of centrist Democrats in the United States, and the Neue Mitte in Germany. Communitarianism played

15873-482: The principal criticisms of communitarianism are: Other critics emphasize close relation of communitarianism to neoliberalism and new policies of dismantling the welfare state institutions through development of the third sector. Earlier theorists and writers Contemporary theorists Egoist Egoism is a philosophy concerned with the role of the self , or ego , as the motivation and goal of one's own action. Different theories of egoism encompass

16016-400: The relations between the individual and society. Both authors warned of the dangers of anomie (normlessness) and alienation in modern societies composed of atomized individuals who had gained their liberty but lost their social moorings. Modern sociologists saw the rise of mass society and the decline of communal bonds and respect for traditional values and authority in the United States as of

16159-456: The right-libertarian Reason Magazine worked with the Rupe organization to survey 1,200 Americans by telephone. The Reason-Rupe poll found that "Americans cannot easily be bundled into either the 'liberal' or 'conservative' groups". Specifically, 28% expressed conservative views, 24% expressed libertarian views, 20% expressed communitarian views, and 28% expressed liberal views. The margin of error

16302-490: The rise of national communities in Europe in the 17th century. Since the late 20th century there has been some growing recognition that the scope of even these communities is too limited, as many challenges that people now face, such as the threat of nuclear war and that of global environmental degradation and economic crises, cannot be handled on a national basis. This has led to the quest for more encompassing communities, such as

16445-406: The same positive conclusions in his 1847 work Elements of Individualism . 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

16588-535: The self can adequately describe the fullness of experience. Stirner has been broadly understood as containing traits of both psychological egoism and rational egoism . Unlike the self-interest described by Ayn Rand , Stirner did not address individual self-interest, selfishness, or prescriptions for how one should act. He urged individuals to decide for themselves and fulfill their own egoism. The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche has been linked to forms of both descriptive and normative egoism. Nietzsche, in attacking

16731-500: 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

16874-512: The state on grounds of absolute egoism. Fascist education combined the tenets of asocial egoism and unquestioning conformism, the latter being the means by which the individual secured his own niche in the system. Stirner's philosophy has nothing to say against conformism, it only objects to the Ego being subordinated to any higher principle: the egoist is free to adjust to the world if it is clear he will better himself by doing so. His 'rebellion' may take

17017-469: 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

17160-440: The state. For example, American society favors being religious over being atheist, but is rather neutral with regard to which particular religion a person should follow. There are no state-prescribed dress codes, "correct" number of children to have, or places one is expected to live, etc. In short, a key defining characteristic of the ideal communitarian society is that in contrast to a liberal state, it creates shared formulations of

17303-482: The stick of sanctions if they stray, offering them the carrot of certainty and stability if they don't." What is specifically meant by "community" in the context of communitarianism can vary greatly between authors and periods. Historically, communities have been small and localized. However, as the reach of economic and technological forces extended, more expansive communities became necessary to provide effective normative and political guidance to these forces, prompting

17446-409: The subordination of the self to altruism as either a form of domination that limits freedom, an unethical or irrational principle, or an extension of some egoistic root cause. In evolutionary theory, biological altruism is the observed occurrence of an organism acting to the benefit of others at the cost of its own reproductive fitness . While biological egoism does grant that an organism may act to

17589-475: 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

17732-460: The term altruism ( French : altruisme ; from Italian altrui , from Latin alteri  'others') as an antonym for egoism. In this sense, altruism defined Comte's position that all self-regard must be replaced with only the regard for others. While Friedrich Nietzsche does not view altruism as a suitable antonym for egoism, Comte instead states that only two human motivations exist, egoistic and altruistic, and that

17875-447: The term 'community' is too vague or cannot be defined, Amitai Etzioni , one of the leaders of the American communitarian movement, pointed out that communities can be defined with reasonable precision as having two characteristics: first, a web of affect-laden relationships among a group of individuals, relationships that often crisscross and reinforce one another (as opposed to one-on-one or chain-like individual relationships); and second,

18018-607: The term while embracing and advancing its ideas. Reflecting the dominance of liberal and conservative politics in the United States, no major party and few elected officials openly advocate communitarianism. Thus there is no consensus on individual policies, but some that most communitarians endorse have been enacted. Nonetheless, there is a small faction of communitarians within the Democratic Party; prominent communitarians include Bob Casey Jr. , Joe Donnelly , and Claire McCaskill . Many communitarian Democrats are part of

18161-546: The twentieth century communitarianism also began to be formulated as a philosophy by Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement . In an early article the Catholic Worker clarified the dogma of the Mystical Body of Christ as the basis for the movement's communitarianism. Along similar lines, communitarianism is also related to the personalist philosophy of Emmanuel Mounier . Responding to criticism that

18304-494: The two cannot be mediated; that is, one must always predominate the other. For Comte, the total subordination of the self to altruism is a necessary condition to both social and personal benefit. Nietzsche, rather than rejecting the practice of altruism, warns that despite there being neither much altruism nor equality in the world, there is almost universal endorsement of their value and, notoriously, even by those who are its worst enemies in practice. Egoist philosophy commonly views

18447-442: The values and significance of community or collectivism and to various types of communism and socialism (Christian, scientific, or utopian), including: While the term communitarian was coined only in the mid-nineteenth century, ideas that are communitarian in nature appeared much earlier. They are found in some classical socialist doctrines (e.g. writings about the early commune and about workers' solidarity), and further back in

18590-472: 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

18733-510: The widely held moral abhorrence for egoistic action, seeks to free higher human beings from their belief that this morality is good for them. He rejects Christian and Kantian ethics as merely the disguised egoism of slave morality . In his On the Genealogy of Morals , Friedrich Nietzsche traces the origins of master–slave morality to fundamentally egoistic value judgments . In the aristocratic valuation, excellence and virtue come as

18876-419: 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

19019-500: 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 holds that

19162-655: 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

19305-418: 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

19448-459: Was a form of conservative communitarian thinking, although he did not implement it in his policy program. Cited policies have included economic and rhetorical support for education, volunteerism, and community programs, as well as a social emphasis on promoting families, character education, traditional values, and faith-based projects. President Barack Obama gave voice to communitarian ideas and ideals in his book The Audacity of Hope , and during

19591-434: 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

19734-487: Was coined in 1841, by John Goodwyn Barmby , a leader of the British Chartist movement, who used it in referring to utopian socialists and other idealists who experimented with communal styles of life . However, it was not until the 1980s that the term "communitarianism" gained currency through association with the work of a small group of political philosophers . Their application of the label "communitarian"

19877-523: Was controversial, even among communitarians, because, in the West, the term evokes associations with the ideologies of socialism and collectivism ; so, public leaders—and some of the academics who champion this school of thought—usually avoid the term "communitarian", while still advocating and advancing the ideas of communitarianism. The term is primarily used in two senses: Czech and Slovak philosophers like Marek Hrubec, Lukáš Perný and Luboš Blaha extend communitarianism to social projects tied to

20020-406: Was developed by pre-socratic philosophers . 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

20163-414: 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

20306-496: 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

20449-446: Was ±3. A similar Gallup survey in 2011 included possible centrist/moderate responses. That poll reported that 17% expressed conservative views, 22% expressed libertarian views, 20% expressed communitarian views, 17% expressed centrist views, and 24% expressed liberal views. The organization used the terminology "the bigger the better" to describe communitarianism. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, founded and led by Imran Khan ,

#575424