Individualismul modern ca ideologie justificativa

Individualism is seen as a central component of modernity. (Individualism is, in Charles Taylor’s view for example, the most beautiful achievement of modernity.) From an apologetic perspective, individualism corresponds to an objective, real need of self-achievement; it represents an essential step towards emancipation. This paper does not aim at contending with this description of the concept of individualism, because to do so would mean suggesting an alternative ideology, but instead it aims at understanding the real grounds of the development of individualism in order to correct the “propagandistic” image of modern individualism. The main arguments which are used to correct this image are that individualism is the expression of a certain crisis of the spirit, not of a prosperity of the spirit, and the resources of its vindication are in fact “intellectual fabrications,” myths rather than objective discoveries.