Individual

==Philosophy==
[[File:Finnish anti-vegetation task force on a Baltic sea island.jpg|thumb|right|Individuals may stand out from the [[crowd]], or may blend in with it.]]

===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, the individual in Buddhism is understood as an interrelated part of an ever-changing, impermanent universe (see [[Interdependence]], [[Nonduality (spirituality)|Nondualism]], [[Reciprocity (social psychology)|Reciprocity]]).

===Empiricism===
[[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. 224–62, [[Brill Publishers]], {{ISBN|90-04-09459-8}}.</ref> in early 12th century Islamic Spain and [[John Locke]] in late 17th century England viewed 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 [[Rationality|rational]] individuals, and the beginnings of [[individualism]] as a doctrine.

===Hegel<!--linked from 'Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel'-->===
[[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] regarded history as the gradual evolution of Mind as it tests its own concepts against the external world.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6188.Georg_Wilhelm_Friedrich_Hegel|title=Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|website=www.goodreads.com|access-date=2019-11-22}}</ref> Each time the mind applies its concepts to the world, the concept is revealed to be only partly true, within a certain context; thus the mind continually revises these incomplete concepts so as to reflect a fuller reality (commonly known as the process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis). The individual comes to rise above their own particular viewpoint,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zovko|first=Jure|s2cid=149279317|date=2018-05-12|title=Hegel's concept of education from the point of view of his idea of 'second nature'|journal=Educational Philosophy and Theory|volume=50|issue=6–7|pages=652–661|doi=10.1080/00131857.2017.1374842|issn=0013-1857}}</ref> and grasps that they are a part of a greater whole<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EYSWG2/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i1|via=www.amazon.com |title=Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: The Science of Logic (Cambridge Hegel Translations) |edition=Kindle |last1=Hegel |first1=Georg Wilhelm Friedrich |translator=George Di Giovanni|date=19 August 2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=2019-11-22}}</ref> insofar as they are bound to family, a social context, and/or a political order.

===Existentialism===
With the rise of [[existentialism]], [[Søren 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 their own fate. Later Existentialists built upon this notion. [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], for example, examines the individual's need to define his/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 (and in [[Nikolai Berdyaev]]), the individual is called upon to create their own values, rather than rely on external, socially imposed codes of morality.

===Objectivism===
[[Ayn Rand]]'s [[Objectivism]] regards every human as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to their own life, a right derived from their nature as a rational being. Individualism and Objectivism hold that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful coexistence among humans, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of [[individual rights]]&nbsp;— and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members. The principle of individual rights is the only moral base of all groups or associations. Since only an individual man or woman can possess rights, the expression "individual rights" is a redundancy (which one has to use for purposes of clarification in today's intellectual chaos), but the expression "[[collective rights]]" is a contradiction in terms. Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a [[Tyranny of the majority|majority]] has no right to vote away the rights of a [[minority group|minority]]; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).<ref>Ayn Rand, [http://www.aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/individualism.html ''"Individualism"'']. Ayn Rand Lexicon.</ref><ref>Ayn Rand (1961), [http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/individualrights.html ''"Individual Rights"'']. Ayn Rand Lexicon.</ref>