ABSTRACT
The idea of individualism in economic theory implies a particular way of relating both to other people and to the world. Individualism is a major element of modern social imaginary and can be thought of as consisting of a number of distinct but related components: autonomy, privacy, dignity and self-development or improvement. If the modern idea of the individual marks a departure from medieval conceptions of the person its emergence, as a distinct concept, also stands as the culmination of long-drawn out historical processes of religious and social change that were already at work during the medieval period itself. The theorization of the modern individual is also linked to the political and economic changes that took place the 16th century. Scarcity was initially thought of as a specific event that sporadically occurred throughout human history, a culmination of the role played by fortune or the greed of particular individuals such as merchants.
