DOCTRINE OF INDIVIDUAL AND INDIVIDUALISM

BY

SONAKSHI
(ROLL NO. 1054, 6TH SEMESTER)
SUBMITTED TO FACULTY OF JURISPRUDENCE

ROUGH DRAFT SUBMITTED IN FULFILMENT OF PROJECT

FOR THE SUBJECT OF JURISPRUDENCE

CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

PATNA

Aim: To discuss the theory of individualism.

Research Methodology: This project involves doctrinal research. Doctrinal

research means the research done with the help of books, journals, newspapers,
magazines, internet sources, etc.

Chapterization:

1. Introduction:
Individualism is a moral, political or social outlook that stresses human
independence and the importance of individual self-reliance and liberty. It
opposes most external interference with an individual's choices, whether by
society, the state or any other group or institution (collectivism or statism), and it
also opposed to the view that tradition, religion or any other form of external moral
standard should be used to limit an individual's choice of actions.
Ethical Individualism, then, is the position that individual conscience or reason is
the only moral rule, and there is no objective authority or standard which it is
bound to take into account. It can be applied to the morality of the Scottish School
of Common Sense of the late 18th Century, the autonomous morality of Immanuel
Kant, and even ancient Greek Hedonismand Eudaimonism.
Some Individualists are also Egoists (the ethical position that moral agents ought to
do whatever is in their own self-interest), although they usually do not argue
that selfishness is inherently good. Rather, they would argue that individuals are not
duty-bound to any socially-imposed morality, and that individuals should be free to
choose to be selfish or not.
Existentialist ethics is also characterized by an emphasis on moral Individualism,
especially given its focus on the subjective, personal lives of individual human
beings. Existentialism holds that there is no basic and given human nature that
is common to all people, and so each person must define individually what
humanity means to them and what values or purpose will dominate in their lives.
The term "individualism" was first used by French and British proto-Socialists,
followers of Saint-Simon (1760 - 1825) and Robert Owen (1771 - 1858), initially as
a pejorative term, and mainly in the sense of Political Individualism (see the

section below). The 19th Century American Henry David Thoreau is often cited as
an example of a committed Individualist. In popular usage, the connotations of
"individualism" can be positive or negative, depending on who is using the term,
and how.

2. The individual
3. Individualism and Society
4. Types of individualism
5. Individualism and collectivism
6. Conclusion

7. Bibliography:
http://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_individualism.html
http://www.gelfand.umd.edu/Individualism%20and
%20Collectivism.pdf
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/methodological-individualism/
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/individualism