Individualism, Political and Ethical

Individualism rests on the idea that the relevant units of political or ethical inquiry are the individual human beings in question, as opposed to a society, race, class, sex, or other group. Libertarianism is a quintessentially individualist political theory.

Ethical individualism holds that the primary concern of morality is the individual, rather than society as a whole, and that morality primarily concerns individual flourishing, rather than one's interactions with others. Contemporary Neo-Aristotelian philosophers such as Ayn Rand, Douglas J. Den Uyl, and Douglas Rasmussen are among those who articulate this view. Rand contended not only that morality is primarily a matter of psychic health, but that service to a group is not a proper moral goal. However, not all individualists are egoists. Plato, for example, while ...