The Basic View of Individualism in Western Economic Methodology

Individualism is a political, ethical doctrine and social philosophy that emphasizes individual freedom, personal interests, and self-determination. In essence, it is a worldview that starts from the supremacy of the individual and centers on the individual to view the world, society and interpersonal relationships.

This theory asserts that the individual is an end in itself, and that society is only a means to an individual's end; all individuals are morally equal. The same French word is "Individualism", from the Latin "Individuum", meaning "individual", "indivisible thing". First used by French sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville, it was described as a mild form of egoism.

Individualism arose with the emergence of private ownership of the means of production and developed along with it: the capitalist system is the last and most complete social form of private ownership of the means of production, and individualism reached its peak in the bourgeoisie. The thinkers of the modern bourgeois revolutionary period universalized individualism as eternal and unchanging human nature and made it the basic content of morality and the main criterion for judging good and evil, as an ideological weapon against feudal morality and religious asceticism.

Individualism has a wide meaning: as a value system, it advocates that all values are centered on the individual, and that the individual himself is of the highest value: as a general attitude toward political, economic, social, and religious behaviors, it includes a high evaluation of personal self-confidence, personal private life, and respect for the individual, and opposes authority and all kinds of domination over the individual.

The Concise Encyclopedia Britannica explains "individualism" as follows: "a political and social philosophy that places a high value on personal freedom, with a broad emphasis on the self-directed, self-controlled, and unencumbered individual or self. ...... As a philosophy, individualism encompasses a value system, a theory of human nature, and a general attitude toward certain political, economic, social, and religious behaviors."

Based on this understanding, there is a historical manifestation of the inevitability of individualism as an attitude, tendency, and belief of the individual to participate in social life. In other words, in the process of civilization of western society, individualism as a way of life, life view and world view, has a holistic and universal significance, constituting the basic way of grasping the relationship between human beings and the world and the state of existence of westerners. Specifically, the penetration of individualism in all aspects of Western social life can be roughly summarized in the philosophical humanism, political democratism, economic liberalism, as well as cultural self-consciousness demanding individuality and independence.