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Single Idea 7231

[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / b. Liberal individualism ]

Full Idea

The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.

Gist of Idea

The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it

Source

John Stuart Mill (On Liberty [1857], Ch.5)

Book Ref

Mill,John Stuart: 'Utilitarianism (including On Liberty etc)', ed/tr. Warnock,Mary [Fontana 1962], p.249

A Reaction

This is a key idea of liberalism, opposed to any idea that we should abandon our own value to that of our state. I agree, but communitarians can subscribe to this too, while disagreeing that maximum freedom is the strategy to follow.

The 22 ideas with the same theme [individuals in a liberal society]:

22595 Liberty is the triumph of the individual, over both despotic government and enslaving majorities [Constant]
7231 The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it [Mill]
23039 A true state is only unified and stabilised by acknowledging individuality [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
22874 Individuality is only developed within groups [Dewey]
22601 Laissez-faire individualism doesn't work, especially in troublesome times [Keynes]
23863 Only individual people of good will can achieve social progress [Weil]
7977 Only in the last 200 years have people demanded the democratic privilege of being individuals [Baudrillard]
23104 Dworkin believed we should promote equality, to increase autonomy [Dworkin, by Kekes]
18663 Modern liberalism has added personal privacy to our personal social lives [Kymlicka]
23374 We have become attached to private life because that has become greatly enriched [Kymlicka]
23085 The key liberal values are explained by the one core value, which is autonomy [Kekes]
23092 Agents have little control over the capacities needed for liberal autonomy [Kekes]
21120 The self is 'unencumbered' if it can abandon its roles and commitments without losing identity [Sandel, by Shorten]
22263 Liberal justice means the withdrawal of the self, as transcendental or as unencumbered [Sandel]
20690 The state fostered individualism, to break the power of family and community [Harari]
21134 Maybe the rational autonomous liberal individual is merely the result of domination [Shorten]
22831 Modern libertarian societies still provide education and some housing [Charvet]
22839 Liberalism needs people to either have equal autonomy, or everyone to have enough autonomy [Charvet]
22847 Kant places a higher value on the universal rational will than on the people asserting it [Charvet]
23537 American white men trusted the philosophy of winning, and then discovered losing [Berardi]
24157 Societies should celebrate individual agency, but not mere self-interest [Hutton]
24159 Western civilization depends on a fully free market, private property, and free speech [Hutton]