Stuart Mill Individuality

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Individuality: What Is It and Why Is It Important? Both the English philosopher John Stuart Mill and German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels discuss individuality which goes hand in hand with progress, singularity, and genius. On Liberty by Mill defines individuality and tells us why it is important in society. I am going to provide examples of people who are considered to be individuals and fit Mill’s definition. Then the paper will examine the reproach to the communism for being anti-individual and anti-freedom along with the response in Manifesto of the Communist Party. There are some similarities and some differences between the views on individuality among these philosophers, so I will discuss one point that they would agree …show more content…
Along with individuality, we see a disappearance of freedom, according to the bourgeois. The only thing that a communist wants to abolish is private property because “In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality… “ (Marx/Engels, 23) Communism wants to abolish things that make a bourgeois an individual, and obviously, those who have a lot to give up in terms of private property are not pleased with such idea because they are concerned about their possessions. Communists respond by saying that without individual property, we can see that individuality of bourgeois vanishes. (Marx/Engels, 23) The rest of the people, the proletariat, only exist. Majority of laborers do not really live their life because they are under constant exploitation and oppression from those who are above them. With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things/possessions in a communist society. In capitalist society the only “individuals” are bourgeois, not lower classes, because they are the mean to the success of the elites. Such “individuals” should get out of the way of communism because they are not supposed to be in the system. My response is that some individuals need capital to create something extraordinary and truly progressive. An example would be those who are developing electric technologies and electric …show more content…
We are at the point where technologies are simplifying mundane duties and improve our lives. Also, technological progress is the most obvious and objective. Without individuals who are working on those progressive technologies we would not have the world we have today. Elon Musk is a great example of an individual in my opinion that would fit Mill’s definition of individuality because his ideas push our society forward with progress. He possesses the intellect and creativity. I can see why many people think that he is crazy and his company will fail, but those people are mediocre. They are not individuals themselves, so they try to diminish his achievements. He uses his capital to improve lives of others. We need to provide a special habitat for genius to develop “Genius can breathe freely only in an atmosphere of freedom.” (Mill, 42) Currently we have a great environment for genius to grow because we have freedom in most aspects of our lives. Wealthy people like Elon have even more freedom because they have enough financial resources to test out their ideas and see what works and what does not. So, his intellect, creativity, and property separate him from the mediocre society and make him a proper
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