Week 3 (Feb 17) Dr.

Yun ZHANG

Am I Selfish?:
Individualism
and its Role in
American
Culture
Questions: Does
individualism mean
selfishness? Can you tell the
difference? Do you value
individualism as one of your
moral doctrines? 1
 Todays Guiding Questions
What is Individualism?
What role does individualism play
in American culture ?
What is the relationship between
the ideal of self-made man and
utilitarian individualism?
How are individuality and
nonconformity represented in
expressive individualism?
Are contemporary technologies
good or bad for the development
of individualism?

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 What is Individualism?
Individualism endorses the
principle that the ends or
purposes of the human
individual possess dignity and
worth that take precedence
over communal,
metaphysical, cosmological,
or religious priorities.
The term was not in general
use until the 1820s; it is a
creation of the modern
Western world, a development
of Englightenment liberal
values.
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Jacob Burckhardt: During the
middle-ages the veil covering human
souls was a cloth of faith, biases,
ignorance and illusionsin so far as
the human being was considered only
as belonging to a race, a population, a
party, a corporation, a family or any
other forms of community. For the
first time, it was Italy that has broken
this veil and dictated the objective
study of the State and other worldly
things. and man becomes
individual, spiritual, assuming his
new status consciousness.-The
Civilization of the
Renaissance in Italy
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Enlightenment
philosophy privileges
reason over faith,
rejects the traditional
religious tenets, and
values human
understanding and the
capacity of the
individual. These new
ideas reordered the way
people thought about
government, society,
and rights.
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 Individualism in American Culture

Are you an American?

No, I am the American.
Mark Twain

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.
The Declaration of Independence 6
Individualism lies at
the very core of
American culture.
That each individual shall
be given the chance and
stimulation for development
of the best with which he
has been endowed in heart
and mind; it is the sole
source of progress, it is
American individualism.
(Herbert Hoover, American
Individualism, p.36) 7
The rugged individual:
the image of American
cowboy hero
By the end of the 19th
century, cowboys became
a symbol for the
individualism that
Americans celebrated and
idealized.
The cowboy is a rugged
(mythic) individual, out
there by himself, roaming
the country living by his
own moral code.

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The Fountainhead:
embodiment of
individualism on
screen
Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead
is a paean to the power of the
individual. The hero, Howard
Roark, is an architect who
rejects conformity for his own
values and ideals.
I'm selfish? - is that what
they say? It's true I live for
the judgment of my own mind
and for my own sake.
https://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=Zc7oZ9yWqO4 9
Two Major Strands of
Individualism in US

Utilitarian Individualism

Expressive Individualism

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Utilitarian Individualism
A form of individualism that
takes as given basic human
appetites and fears... and sees
human life as an effort by
individuals to maximize their
self-interest relative to these
given ends. It views society as
arising from a contract that
individuals enter into only in
order to advance their self-
interest. (Robert Bellah et al.,
Habits of the Heart, 1996, p.
333.)
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The Ideal American
Individual: Benjamin
Franklin(1706-1790)
The self-made man
as representative of the
American national
character.
In a society where each
vigorously pursued his
own interest, the social
good would
autonomously emerge.
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Franklins Autobiography
was a powerful narrative of
his own rise from humble
beginnings to a position of
influence and wealth.
"I should have no objection to a
repetition of the same life from its
beginning, only asking the
advantage authors have in a second
edition to correct some faults of the
first."
Franklin was celebrated as the
embodiment of virtue, and his
American individualism had become
a popular commodity.

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Franklins 13 Virtues
Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to
elevation.
Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others
or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
Order. Let all your things have their places; let
each part of your business have its time.
Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought;
perform without fail what you resolve.
Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to
others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
Industry. Lose no time; be always employ'd in
something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently
and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

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 Justice. Wrong none by doing
injuries, or omitting the benefits that
are your duty.
Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear
resenting injuries so much as you
think they deserve.
Cleanliness. Tolerate no
uncleanliness in body, clothes, or
habitation.
Tranquillity. Be not disturbed at
trifles, or at accidents common or
unavoidable.
Chastity. Rarely use venery but for
health or offspring, never to dullness,
weakness, or the injury of your own
or another's peace or reputation.
Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

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Expressive
Individualism
It was a more romantic
notion that saw the
individual as a special and
intuitive being who may
merge with others, or
nature, or the cosmos.
Success had little to do with
material acquisition.
Individuals had the right to
express freely and live
creatively according to their
own perception of truth.
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The practice of self-reliance
Man is his own star; and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man,
Commands all light, all influence, all fate;
Nothing to him falls early or too late.
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still. Self
Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson
No news, busyness or stimulation, including the
human kind, enters [my home] without my
permission. Henry David Thoreau

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