progressivism, individualism, and the public ... - Telmarc Group

The Telmarc Group
PROGRESSIVISM, INDIVIDUALISM, AND THE PUBLIC
INTELLECTUAL
3 INDIVIDUALISTS
The individualists were those who sought to focus on the individual and the rights of the
individual qua a single entity. The rights were initially natural rights, those rights that
man had from the very beginning, not the rights which may have been handed down by
either a sovereign or a government. The individualists looked towards the single person
in their own lives and for many of them they viewed the government less as a supporter
of those rights and more as a delimiter of them.
The individualists were also less interested in society and in addition they tended to look
less strongly on the social contract theories since such theories depended on society as a
group agreeing to form a government rather than an amalgam of individuals.
In Jefferson's Declaration of Independence there is the most clear definition of
individualism available. It is
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
The elements are:
1. Self Evident: That is it is a universal truth that it exists and its very existence is
obvious to all.
2. All Men: It applies to all; including slaves which Jefferson had some problems with, as
well as women.
3. Unalienable Rights: There are certain natural rights which all have to themselves,
without the source being the government or any ruler. The source, the Creator, is broadly
speaking rights accruing to man by the very nature of man being man. These rights may
be positive or negative rights.
4. Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness: Man is free, with a free existence, life, and man
has the opportunity to seek what makes him happy. Happiness may be that of a stoic,
epicurean, Christian, or whatever, it may be monetary or purely spiritual, but happiness is
self defined. The individual is assure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, not
guaranteed happiness but just the pursuit thereof.
5. Instituted among men: The individuals meet to create the government, the individuals,
not groups, not society, the separate and distinct individuals.
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