Individual

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about individuality in general. For Strawson's metaphysics as described in his book: Individuals, see P. F. Strawson. For other uses, see Individual (disambiguation).
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An individual is that which exists as a distinct

rights and responsibilities. The concept of an individual features in diverse fields, including biology, law, and philosophy. Every individual contributes significantly to the growth of a civilization. Society is a multifaceted concept that is shaped and influenced by a wide range of elements, including human behaviors, attitudes, and ideas. The culture, morals, and beliefs of others as well as the general direction and trajectory of the society can all be influenced and shaped by an individual's activities.[1]

Etymology

From the 15th century and earlier (and also today within the fields of

indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person". From the 17th century on, individual has indicated separateness, as in individualism.[2]

Biology

In

selection".[3] Genes, genomes, or groups may function as individual units.[3]

genet, and an individual in such a population is referred to as a ramet. The colony, rather than the individual, functions as a unit of selection. In other colonial organisms the individuals may be closely related to one another but differ as a result of sexual reproduction
.

One of the most accepted hypotheses is the definition of an organism that emerged from Piast's ladder of lifeness. According to this idea, life can be described as a phenomenon (continuum of self-maintainable information) and its individual organism can be described as a distinct element of this continuum. The ability to define entity boundaries is a key trait of distinctness, which can be achieved either through physical means, such as maintaining an open system through a cell, or through informational means, such as maintaining transmission to another host as seen in parasitic entities like viruses.[4]

Law

Although individuality and individualism are commonly considered to mature with age/time and experience/wealth, a sane adult human being is usually considered by the state as an "individual person" in law, even if the person denies individual culpability ("I followed instructions").

An individual person is

military duties, and the individual right to bear arms
(protected only under certain constitutions).

Philosophy

Individuals may stand out from the crowd, or may blend in with it.

Buddhism

In

Nondualism, Reciprocity
).

Empiricism

Ibn Tufail[5] in early 12th century Islamic Spain and John Locke in late 17th century England viewed the individual as a tabula rasa ("blank slate"), shaped from birth by experience and education. This ties into the idea of the liberty and rights of the individual, society as a social contract between rational individuals, and the beginnings of individualism
as a doctrine.

Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel regarded history as the gradual evolution of Mind as it tests its own concepts against the external world.[6] Each time the mind applies its concepts to the world, the concept is revealed to be only partly true, within a certain context; thus the mind continually revises these incomplete concepts so as to reflect a fuller reality (commonly known as the process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis). The individual comes to rise above their own particular viewpoint,[7] and grasps that they are a part of a greater whole[8] insofar as they are bound to family, a social context, and/or a political order.

Existentialism

With the rise of

Sartre's philosophy, which emphasizes individual authenticity, responsibility, and free will. In both Sartre and Nietzsche (and in Nikolai Berdyaev
), the individual is called upon to create their own values, rather than rely on external, socially imposed codes of morality.

Objectivism

collective rights" is a contradiction in terms. Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).[9][10]

See also

Look up individual in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Main articles: Outline of self and Individualism

References

  1. ^ "Evaluate the role of an individual in the development of any society". Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  2. ^ Abbs 1986, cited in Klein 2005, pp. 26–27
  3. ^ a b c Wilson, R (2007). "The biological notion of individual". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  4. PMID 30876803
    .
  5. ISBN 90-04-09459-8
    .
  6. ^ "Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  7. S2CID 149279317
    .
  8. ^ Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (19 August 2010). Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: The Science of Logic (Cambridge Hegel Translations). Translated by George Di Giovanni (Kindle ed.). Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 2019-11-22 – via www.amazon.com.
  9. ^ Ayn Rand, "Individualism". Ayn Rand Lexicon.
  10. ^ Ayn Rand (1961), "Individual Rights". Ayn Rand Lexicon.

Further reading

  • Gracie, Jorge J. E. (1988) Individuality: An Essay on the Foundations of Metaphysics. State University of New York Press.
  • Klein, Anne Carolyn (1995)
    ISBN 0-8070-7306-7
    .
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