Individualism

“Individualism in Art” — Wittkower essay

A few excerpts from Rudolf Wittkower‘s important essay “Individualism in Art,” published in Journal of the History of Ideas 22 (1961), 291-302. From guild monopolies to individual entrepreneurism: “It would seem that with the breaking of the guild monopoly in the course of the XVth century the artist’s attitude to his work changed. Instead of […]

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Socialism as *moral* failure (Den Uyl and Rasmussen quotation)

Well said, and a strong analogy: “Socialism is no more successful in ethics than in economics, and for similar reasons: it sacrifices the future to the present by discouraging innovation and inverts the source of positive marginal change by moving it from the individual to society. Ethical wealth, like economic wealth, will be a function

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Individualism, and why I love the Renaissance

From Jacob Burckhardt’s great The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860): In the Middle Ages, “Man was conscious of himself only as a member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation — only through some general category. In Italy this veil first melted into air; an objective treatment and consideration of the state

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Transcript of “13 arguments for liberal capitalism in 13 minutes”

With much thanks to Matheus Pacini for his work on the transcription, below is the text for my “13 arguments for liberal capitalism in 13 minutes.” The original videos are at YouTube. The graphic integration of the arguments in a flowchart is here. And here’s the transcript in PDF. 13 Arguments for Liberal Capitalism in

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Individualism and economic growth — Gorodnichenko and Roland

In an NBER paper, “Culture, Institutions and the Wealth of Nations,” Yuriy Gorodnichenko and Gerard Roland compare the growth gains that individualist ethics generate compared to those of collectivist ethics. The first sentences of their abstract: “We construct an endogenous growth model that includes a cultural variable along the dimension of individualism-collectivism. The model predicts

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Individualism: self-responsible living and the virtues

Stephen Hicks discusses individualism and the virtues in Objectivism. This is from Part 12 of his Philosophy of Education course. Previous: Human nature: mind/body integration, volition, reason and emotion, tabula rasa morally Next: Egoism versus the false alternative of altruism or predation Return to the Philosophy of Education page. Return to the StephenHicks.org main page.

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