ABSTRACT
Western civilization bears deeply the imprint of individualism; perhaps the two are so closely linked as to be inseparable. The rise of experimental science, one must add, was paralleled in the social and economic domain by the decline of feudal hierarchy and its progressive replacement by competitive market relations – relations which relied essentially on a conception of man as a possessive and acquisitive creature. The role and meaning of individualism and the status of the thinking subject are today surrounded by intense controversy. This chapter seeks to elucidate a number of prominent contemporary perspectives on the issue. Recent decades have seen a strong revival of traditional liberalism cum individualism, at least in the North American context. The chapter intends to concentrate briefly on one recent work which has widely been heralded as a bulwark of neo-individualism: Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia, which recaptures and reinvigorates the Lockean theory of natural rights and individual liberties.
