The individual and God. The individual and the community. The individual and nature. The individual and eternity. The individual and everything else. A component. A part. Connected. Independent. Alone. Integrated. Organic. Holistic. Mystical. In control. Suffering. Where is the individual in our universe?

Historically, nearly all cultures emphasized the group, the community and God, not the individual. Achieving “community” is a very challenging task. Individuals have always been selfish, wishing to gain the many benefits of community while not committing to, investing in, or being loyal to the community. The “free rider” problem endures into modern society and its many groups.

Our US culture is dominated by individualistic philosophies. How did we arrive at such an unbalanced result?

“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back …” John Maynard Keynes

Plato, Socrates and Aristotle raised up the idea of a single man, a philosopher, as worthy of praise and honor, in contrast to only the received wisdom and traditions.

The Council of Nicaea (325) consolidated early Christian thinking, defining Christ’s life as fully God/fully man and embracing the trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This conception addressed both the individual and community/God dimensions, emphasizing the “community of believers” which was to be led by the pope in Rome. This “balanced” view dominated the world for more than 1,000 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea

St. Augustine (b 354) provides a very personal, individual perspective on faith in his “Confessions”, as he embraces and the community of faith and city of God.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_(Augustine)

The Magna Carta (1215) was an early reflection of the belief that individuals had rights against the consolidated powers of the age.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta

The Renaissance promoted the idea of individual agency through art, science, craftsmanship and politics (Machiavelli) without directly challenging the existing community and religious views. A humanistic perspective was restarted as Greek and Roman works were studied once again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance

Click to access Session_4_Presentation_Italian_Renaissance.pdf

Luther (b 1483) elevated the individual above the Church for the purposes of faith, criticizing some Church decisions, but embracing the community of faith.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther

John Calvin (b 1509) carefully ordered the relationship between the individual, the community, the church and God.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Calvin

Galileo (b 1564) and Kepler (b 1571) challenged the idea of a fully known and “received” universe with their new theories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Kepler

Rene Descartes (b 1596) reinvented philosophy on a skeptical, individualistic basis. “I think, therefore I am.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes

Hobbes, Locke, Hume and Mill invented the “classical liberal” model of government and economics based upon the individual and social contract theory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hume

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism

American Revolution (1765) – The individual “rights of Englishmen”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution

Edmund Burke (b 1729) outlined the rationale for a conservative, community and history based political philosophy at a time when others were promoting progressive, idealistic, individualist views.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/conservatism/Intellectual-roots-of-conservatism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke

Immanuel Kant (b 1724) praised the role of the individual thinker connected with the higher-level basis of pure thought.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant

Newton (b 1642) was perhaps the greatest thinker of all time. He emphasized universal, eternal, mathematical truths, but he was also a legendary individual figure in his time.

“Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night:
God said, Let Newton be! and all was light” – Alexander Pope

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (b. 1712) promoted the “individualist” perspective, claiming that man in his original nature was good. Society had corrupted man. Modern man needed to break free from society and find his deep, true self as the basis for a great life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau

GWF Hegel (b 1770) moved the other way, emphasizing the abstract general forces of history and minimizing the role of individual persons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Wilhelm_Friedrich_Hegel

The French Revolution (1789) – Anything is possible. Individual versus the community. Tradition versus modern. Aristocrats versus the people. Idealism versus realism. Abstract versus concrete. Individual man versus history. Religion versus secular state. Hope versus fear.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution

Romanticism (1800-50) was a reaction against the scientific revolution, progress, technology, urbanization, trade and the emerging mechanical, commercial, rational worldview in Europe. It celebrated the heroic individual, art, nature, emotions, literature, experiences and creativity. While it elevated the individual it also pointed to those dimensions of life that are beyond reductionistic materialism, including the community, music and culture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism_in_philosophy

European Nationalism (1848 – 1917) – Individuals sought to be represented by their nations. The nations were often portrayed in the ideal forms suggested by Hegel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rise_of_nationalism_in_Europe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

Classic Sociology (1840-1917) as the scientific study of society, community and institutions. Comte, Marx, Durkheim, Tonnies, and Weber.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sociology

https://theconversation.com/pioneering-sociologist-foresaw-our-current-chaos-100-years-ago-105018

Marx (b 1818) adopted Hegel’s basic high-level view that communities, ideas, history and class matter most.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx

Darwin (b 1809) provided an earth-shaking intellectual perspective, changing how we see history, the universe and God. The individual matters, but the forces of competitive nature are much more important.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin

Kierkegaard (b 1813) started the existentialist world view, challenging everything. Objective certainty was difficult to fully believe. Conventional society was unserious about eternal matters. A “leap of faith” by the individual was needed to embrace the potential certainty of God.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard

Charles Pierce (b 1839) and the pragmatists lost faith in an objective world view. They said, “just look at the results”. This could be viewed at a general level, but was mostly seen as an individual, skeptical philosophy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sanders_Peirce

Nietzsche (b 1844) fully embraced the individualistic perspective, declaring “God is dead” and concluding there is only the individual.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche

Sigmund Freud (b 1856) developed the scientific study of psychology, creating psychoanalysis, the unconscious, the ego, id and superego. His work influenced the social sciences, philosophy and culture. His work mainly focused on the individual and secondarily on his interaction with society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud

John Dewey (b 1859) guided the creation of public education in the US on a broadly pragmatic, modern, liberal basis. Society has a responsibility to shape citizens and prepare them for a commercial and productive society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey

Maria Montessori (b 1870) developed a “stages” theory of child development and education programs taking advantage of individual initiative. Rousseau’s “man is naturally good” philosophy influenced public education throughout the twentieth century, underpinning the “therapeutic society”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori

Einstein (b 1879), like Newton, was viewed as a remarkable individual. His work focused on universal laws.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

John-Paul Sartre (b 1905) defined and shared the ideas of existentialism with the public. The individual lives a life of “existence” rather than “idealism”. He is alone with his freedom and faces very difficult choices (suicide, despair, anxiety). He might turn to higher values such as “authenticity” for guidance. Many saw existentialism as a brutally negative worldview, unworthy of man, while others accepted at least part of the diagnosis and moved forward with life anyway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre

Post WW II critics of the West. Existentialists, postmodernists, post structuralists, neo-Marxists, anti-colonialists, critical theorists and “the new left” developed philosophical, psychological, cultural, literary, educational and political works that opposed the predominant culture and institutions, beginning with an analysis of the individual’s situation, but highlighting the negative influences of society, once again reflecting Rousseau.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Derrida

These groups emphasize the role of social identity groups, especially minority groups, in shaping personal identity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_identity_theory

https://www.verywellmind.com/social-identity-theory-7550623

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_group

Post WW II supporters of Western capitalism, democracy and culture.

Joseph Schumpeter (b 1883) wrestled with the big picture dimensions of economics: macroeconomics, global trade, institutions, political choices, equilibrium, dynamic systems, change, financial systems and entrepreneurs. Although his work is solidly within the scientific study of economic systems, his greatest impact was in elevating the role of entrepreneurs and creative destruction to make capitalism actually work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schumpeter

Friedrich Hayek (b 1899) was also a mainstream economist devoted to technical analysis of business cycles and complex systems but is most noted for his “Road to Serfdom” which promotes a limited state role in the economy because of the risks of the state becoming larger and more powerful, eventually eliminating the free economic and political choices of western democracies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek

Milton Friedman (b 1912) developed the economic school labelled monetarism that emphasized the monetary basis of business cycles as an alternative to the Keynesian emphasis on aggregate demand and the potential role of the state to “manage” the economy. Friedman also emphasized the centrality of liberty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman

Ayn Rand (b 1905) outlined and promoted a thorough going individualistic libertarianism, championing the role of great men, echoing Nietzsche.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand

Ronald Reagan (b 1911) consolidated the political strands of conservatism into a winning formula deemed neo-liberalism, ending the dominance of the center-left begun with FDR. This pro-“free market” stance is sometimes criticized for elevating economic rights above other conservative social values or for being too aligned with elite economic and political interests. Neo-liberalism emphasizes the individual’s property rights, liberty and freedom, but also supports traditional community oriented social, cultural, religious and nationalist views.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan

The “therapeutic society” developed in the second half of the twentieth century as Rousseau’s positive views of man and human potential became more widely accepted and integrated into education, psychology, child-rearing and self-help materials, institutions and popular thought.

Carl Rogers (b 1902) developed positive person-centered psychotherapy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rogers

Norman Vincent Peale (b 1899) promoted “The Power of Positive Thinking”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Positive_Thinking

Joshua Liebman (1907) integrated psychiatry, religion and self-help in his best-selling “Peace of Mind”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_L._Liebman

Dr. Benjamin Spock (1903) offered a more tolerant and child-centered parenting approach to parents of the baby boomers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock

Sociologist Philip Rieff (b 1922) concluded that the “therapeutic society”, disconnected from a sacred base, has no future.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Rieff

A Theological Sickness unto Death: Philip Rieff’s Prophetic Analysis of our Secular Age

Summary

In general, we have a 500-year parade towards pure individualism.

Religion has resisted, preserving some strong communities with reformations, counter-reformations, revivals, social gospel movements, revolutionary theology, evangelism, fundamentalism, new denominations and ecumenicism.

Yet, we clearly live in “A Secular Age”, where the default assumption is that religious belief is difficult to support.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Secular_Age

The Romantic era pushed back on the Enlightenment, rejecting mechanical, materialistic, detached life and favoring the maintenance of social ties and emphasizing non-rational aspects of life. Romanticism has a longer tail in the arts and literature than in economic, political or social life (small is beautiful, utopian socialism).

Nationalism has inspired the creation of new states, encouraged loyalty during difficult periods, but lost much of its attraction in advanced Western countries due to the mixed results of war, populism and fascism and the countervailing attractions of international and regional groups.

Hegel outlined the march of world history, providing a new basis for global community. Marx adapted this view, but the practical application in communism failed. The postmodernist perspective elevates the importance of social identity groups and the benefits from belonging.

Social conservatives, beginning with Edmund Burke, have outlined the benefits of preserving tradition, culture, history, neighborhoods, institutions, trust and social capital. These views are reflected in some national, state and local laws.

The classical sociologists and modern communitarians support this emphasis on encouraging a stronger community dimension, but the practical impact has been limited.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communitarianism

Robert Putnam has documented the innovative progressive era creation of new social institutions plus the post-WW II growth of participation in community organizations and its subsequent decline.

The “community” dimension of life survives in our society, but it is weaker than it has been during most of history.