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The Enlightenment’s Concept of
the Individual and its Contemporary Criticism
Adam J. Chmielewski
Wroc³aw University
Abstract.
Communitarian social philosophy was born in opposition to some tenets of
liberalism. Liberal individualism has been among its most strongly
contested claims. In their criticisms, the communitarians point to the
Enlightenment’s sources of the individualist vision of society and
morality. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that, even if the
communitarian line of argument has been justified in more than one way, it
is at the same time important to remember that the greatest figure of the
Scottish Enlightenment, that of David Hume, does not fit the
individualistic picture too well. I shall begin with a contemporary
definition of individualism, as defined by John Watkins, then I shall
proceed to argue that methodological individualism is rarely an innocent
philosophical position, i.e. that it is very often a preliminary step in
attempts to find a solution to many other, much more important and more
practically relevant issues. For methodological individualism is usually
associated with ontological, as well as moral and political
individualistic doctrines, and they usually go hand in hand, influencing
and strengthening each other.Back |
