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As [[vernacular|commonly used]], '''individual''' refers to a [[person]] or to any specific object in a collection. In the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of [[statistics]] and [[metaphysics]], '''individual''' means "indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person." (q.v. "The problem of [[proper name]]s"). From the seventeenth century on, '''individual''' indicates separateness, as in [[individualism]].<ref>Abbs 1986, cited in Klein 2005, pp.26-27</ref> '''Individuality''' is the state or quality of being an [[individual]]; a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs, goals, and desires.
==Descartes==
In his statement [[Cogito ergo sum]] ("I think therefore I am"), [[Rene Descartes]] posits the notion the individual subject, distinct from the world around him or her. This is the most famous articulation of subject-object dualism (see [[subject-object problem]]) in the Western philosophical tradition.
==Empiricism==
Early [[Empiricism|empiricists]] such as [[Ibn Tufail]]<ref name=Russell>G. A. Russell (1994), ''The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England'', pp. 224-262, [[Brill Publishers]], ISBN 9004094598.</ref> and [[John Locke]] introduced the idea of 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==
[[Hegel]] regarded history as the unfolding of [[God]]'s plan through a process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. The role of the individual in this view was as an agent of this unfolding--a part of a greater whole.
==Existentialism==
With the rise of [[existentialism]], [[Kierkegaard]] rejected Hegel's notion of the individual as subordinated to the forces of history. Instead, he elevated the individual's subjectivity and capacity to choose his or her own fate. Later Existentialists built upon this notion. [[Nietzsche]], for example, examines the individual's need to define him/her own self and circumstances in his concept of [[the will to power]] and the heroic ideal of the [[Übermensch]]. The individual is also central to [[Sartre]]'s philosophy, which emphasizes individual authenticity, responsibility, and [[free will]]. In both Sartre and Nietzsche, the individual is called upon to create his or her own values, rather than rely on external, socially imposed codes of morality.
==Martin Buber's ''I and Thou''==
In ''[[I and Thou]]'', [[Martin Buber]] presents the individual as something that changes depending on how he or she is relating to the outside world, which can be in one of two ways: In the ''I-it'' relation, the individual relates to the external world in terms of objects that are separate from him or herself (an "I" looking at an "it"). In the ''I-thou'' relation, the individual has a personal connection to the external, and feels almost a part of whatever he or she is relating to; the subject-object dichotomy disappears (see [[Nondualism]]).
==Buddhism==
In [[Buddhism]], the concept of the individual lies in [[anatman]], or "no-self." According to anatman, the individual is really a series of interconnected processes that, working together, give the appearance of being a single, separated whole. In this way, anatman, together with [[anicca]], resembles a kind of [[bundle theory]]. Instead of an atomic, indivisible self distinct from reality (see [[Subject-object problem]]), the individual in Buddhism is understood as an interrelated part of an ever-changing, impermanent universe (see [[Nondualism]]).
== References ==
<references/>
* Gracia, Jorge J. E. (1988) ''Individuality: An Essay on the Foundations of Metaphysics''. State Univ. of New York Press.
*Klein, Anne Carolyn (1995) ''Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self''. ISBN 0-8070-7306-7.
==See also==
* [[Atom (disambiguation)]]
* [[Consciousness]]
* [[Cultural identity]]
* [[Identity (social science)|Identity]]
* [[Independence|Independent]]
* [[Person]]
* [[Self (philosophy)]]
* [[Self (sociology)]]
* [[Self (psychology)]]
[[Category:Philosophical terminology]]
[[da:Individ]]
[[de:Individuum]]
[[et:Indiviid]]
[[es:Individuo]]
[[eo:Individuo]]
[[fr:Individu]]
[[gl:Individuo]]
[[ko:개인]]
[[io:Individuo]]
[[lv:Indivīds]]
[[lt:Individas]]
[[hu:Individuum]]
[[nl:Individu]]
[[ja:個人]]
[[no:Individ]]
[[nn:Individ]]
[[pl:Indywiduum]]
[[pt:Indivíduo]]
[[ro:Individ]]
[[ru:Индивид]]
[[simple:Individual]]
[[sk:Individuálnosť (psychológia)]]
[[sr:Индивидуа]]
[[fi:Yksilö]]
[[sv:Individ]]
[[tr:Birey]]
[[zh:个体]]