Post Tagged 'individualism'

November 13, 2025

Liberalism Revisited

For the past decade or so, we have become more accustomed to speak of a “crisis” of liberalism. No doubt that is one reason why Notre Dame Press has chosen to re-release David Walsh’s The Growth of the Liberal Soul. Continue Reading...

July 18, 2023

Who Is a Libertarian?

In their new book, The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism, Matt Zwolinski and John Tomasi have created an exhaustive and fascinating history of the libertarian movement and its animating philosophies. Continue Reading...

December 21, 2022

The Myths of American Individualism

Americans are an individualistic bunch. Our popular culture makes heroes of outsiders, loners, and disrupters. Our politicians emphasize their independence of entrenched institutions, party discipline, and special interests. In economic affairs, we assume that success is within the grasp of anyone who really tries—and harshly judge those who don’t appear to meet the challenge. Continue Reading...

November 16, 2021

“Political Catholicism,” liberalism, and the myth of neutrality

On Twitter and in essays at The American Conservative, Sohrab Ahmari has argued that the debates about liberalism, post-liberalism, and integralism are “exhausted,” and that what he calls “political Catholics” are taking “these battles in other, more concrete dimensions.” Continue Reading...

June 28, 2019

Economics and the social nature of the person

At the center of the economy are human persons. Economics must first be a human discipline before it can be a technical one. One of the essential characteristics of the human person is that we are social beings. Continue Reading...

June 26, 2019

Nisbet and Dalrymple on community, authority, function and tattoos

In his must-read book, The Quest for Community, Robert Nisbet discusses the relationship of community and authority. Communities provide human connection and sense of belonging, but they also come with limitations. Continue Reading...

March 23, 2018

Love as a tesseract

Earlier this week at Public Discourse I wrote an essay on the dangers of individualism and collectivism, illustrated with literary samples from C.S. Lewis and Madeleine L’Engle respectively. I drew the image of an individualist hell from Lewis’ The Great Divorce, citing Napoleon as an eternal exile, not on Elba or Saint Helena but into everlasting perdition. Continue Reading...

May 16, 2017

The Social Capital Project: Reviving ‘associational life’ in America

Over the past few decades, America has experienced a wave of drastic economic and social disruption. In our search for solutions, we’ve tended to look either to ourselves or the State, resulting in a clash between individualism and collectivism that forgets or neglects the space between. Continue Reading...

December 01, 2016

Kings without a king: Kuyper on the illusion of independence

“A human kingship imperceptibly came to power, leaving no place for the kingship of Christ.” –Abraham Kuyper The West prides itself on valuing freedom – political, economic, religious, and otherwise. For some, this leads to the promotion of a certain brand of libertinism: the freedom to do what we want. Continue Reading...

October 11, 2016

Christianity and Liberalism

Over at the Gospel Coalition last week I reviewed Larry Siedentop’s Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism. As I conclude, “The story he tells is true, but at some points only half-true. Continue Reading...

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