Question 10 (b)
Note on individualism
9 marks
- Time to write
- About 18 minutes
- Topic
- Liberal tradition
Question
Question 10 (b) · 9 marksWrite brief notes on Any Two from the following: (b) Individualism
Reworded from the university paper; the task is the same. The original paper belongs to the University of Delhi. See DU's question bank.
Before you write
Read off the question and its marks
Read from the question
- Any TwoThe paper asks for any 2, and this is one of them. Only 2 are marked: a third earns nothing.
- notes onA note opens with the meaning, then two or three key points. No long introduction.
Write it in this order
- Read; underline the asks; jot your points 1 min
- 1 Meaning 3 marks 5 min
- 2 Forms and exponents 3 marks 5 min
- 3 Criticism 3 marks 5 min
- Check: every ask answered, key terms underlined 2 min
Easy marks
- Step 1 opens with the meaning: a one-line definition, the quickest mark in it.
Short on time? Trim steps 1–3 evenly rather than skip one: each is capped at its own marks.
Try it first. About 18 minutes for 9 marks. Write it out, then open the solution.
Solution
Hover or tap a marked figure, like 72,000, to see how it is made and where else it appears.
Individualism is the principle that the individual is the basic unit of moral and political value. It takes the person as a rational creature whose dignity, independent existence and judgment must be fully recognised when public decisions are taken, and it treats society and the state as artificial institutions set up to serve individuals. Locke and Adam Smith were its early exponents; Kant gave it its firmest philosophical form, since the autonomous individual is free from external determination (coercion, threat, manipulation) and from internal passions and prejudices, and acts on reason.
In economics it appears as laissez-faire individualism: each person is the best judge of their own interest, contracts are to be enforced, and the state is kept to a minimum. In politics it supports civil liberties and democracy. In its modern form it means the entitlement of citizens to live by their freely chosen values or ends, which is Rawls's political liberalism.
Criticisms. Marxists say it ignores the unequal power of classes; feminists hold that the supposedly universal individual is drawn on male norms and legitimises gender inequality. Conservatives reject the isolated individual and favour an organic society in which people are rooted and belong. Communitarians argue that the self is formed in communities and cannot be abstracted from them. The same economic individualism, in the welfare-state critique of Friedman and Nozick, also resurfaced in neo-liberalism.
Where the 9 marks sit
| # | Component | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meaning | 3 |
| 2 | Forms and exponents | 3 |
| 3 | Criticism | 3 |
| Total | 9 |
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