| Title | : | Classical Individualism: The Supreme Importance of Each Human Being |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0415165725 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780415165723 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | - |
| Publication | : | First published February 7, 1998 |
This book does not reject the social nature of human beings, but finds that every one has a self-directed agent who is responsible for what he or she does. Machan rejects all types of collectivism, including communitarianism, ethnic solidarity, racial unity, and gender identity. The ideas expressed here have important social and political implications, and will be of interest to anyone concerned with the notion of individuality and individual responsibility.
Classical Individualism: The Supreme Importance of Each Human Being Reviews
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Ever get tired of hearing about how the ego and the self? Ever feel like nihilism is spreading like a forest fire? In this collection of essays Machan attemps to define his own type of individualism which differs quite a bit from the 'rugged individualism' one gets used to hearing about. In one of the best essays Machan critizises Hobbes radical individualism, that is to say the view that our instincts, not our thoughts, dictate what we think of as good. If anyone has ever read anything by Stig Larsson or seen the girl with the dragoon tattoo, you will know exactly the type of individualism Machan is referring to. To put it as succintly as possible, the individual struggles with others to get as much of the pie as possible; often ending in the survival of the strongest.
Machan defends what he calls classical individualism against this other view. Classical individualism can be described briefly as a view of the individual as a capable of rational animal combined with a free will to carry out his or her plans. The key to understanding this individual however is that he or she can only flourish in communities because working together allows individuals to develop together in order to reach their highest potential. Because human beings are rational we also have certain natural rights which cannot be violated and these are the right to (in the words of Locke) "person and property". While the hobbesian view focuses all the attention on the need for the individuals complete autonomy, Machan claims that the individual needs some degree of autonomy (that is to say separateness from others) but working together with others can produce results drastically higher than those we would have accomplished had we worked by ourselves.
In other essays Machans takes time to defend the rationality of man (along with the free will) as this lies at the heart of his political philosophy. Although one can question this stance (and certainly the stance of many economists of the chicago school), Machan states that we need not be conscious of our every choice in order to be rational. The concert pianist is not conscious of how his every finger moves but rather he has practiced so much that he knows which keys the fingers should press. For anyone interested in pursuing this line of thought, I would recommend this book as well as those who look to defend human rights against the relativism of postmodernism. -
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