Summary
Individualism is the outlook that puts the individual first. A person’s own goals, independence and self-reliance are held to matter more than the claims of a state or social group, and outside interference in them is resisted. It is at once a moral stance, a political philosophy and a social outlook. The English word began as an insult, used by utopian socialists such as the Owenites in the late 1830s, before others took it up as praise.
Researchers who compare cultures set it against collectivism. They find that societies differ by degree, not in kind, with North America and Western Europe among the most individualistic.
Rationale
Part 1 treats individualism less as a philosophy than as a disposition, and asks whether it sits beside separation or grows from it. Our own field isn’t exempt: “individualistic competition” ends up “reproducing fragmentation”.