Author Topic: Individulaism (Read 848 times)

spouse of Jesus · « **on:** September 11, 2011, 08:47:14 AM »

Can anyone please tell me about the catholic view on individualism?
Thanks

Stubborn · « **Reply #1 on:** September 11, 2011, 10:31:01 AM »

individualism

The tendency to magnify individual liberty, as against external authority, and individual activity as against associated activity. Under external authority are included not merely political and religious governments, but voluntary associations (such as trade unions), and such forms of restraint as are found in general standards of conduct and belief.
http://saints.sqpn.com/ncd04172.htm

spouse of Jesus · « **Reply #2 on:** September 11, 2011, 11:29:45 AM »

Thanks. But I know the definition, just needed a catholic perspective and wanted to know if trads usually oppose it or not.

Pyrrhos · « **Reply #3 on:** September 11, 2011, 11:58:37 AM »

To which kind of individualism are you referring to? Certainly, the Catholic Church rejects religious or ethical individualism (since Catholics accept the law of God as well as the law of the Church), while usually advocating neither a individualistic nor anti-individualistic political position.

Telesphorus · « **Reply #4 on:** September 11, 2011, 12:01:01 PM »

Quote from: spouse of Jesus

Thanks. But I know the definition, just needed a catholic perspective and wanted to know if trads usually oppose it or not.

Catholics believe that individuals have rights according to the natural law.

But the rights Catholics believe in are quite different than the rights that classical liberals claimed to believe in.

Matthew · « **Reply #5 on:** September 11, 2011, 01:18:23 PM »

I guess it depends on what you mean by "Individualism". It might be best to define it, before we can discuss it.

One thing for sure -- Catholicism doesn't teach that individuals are just cogs in a big machine. Souls are individually created, each with specific talents and a purpose planned by God.

As Tele pointed out, there is such a thing as justice and rights of the individual.

Liberalism exaggerates those rights (e.g., Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, etc.)

But individuals have rights that stem from the Natural Law which is God's design for mankind in this world. So, for example, men have a natural right to marry and have children -- as many as God sends. Communist China and the Fascist environmentalists would tread upon this right.

Also, men have a right to educate their children, worship God, and other rights.

Graham · « **Reply #6 on:** September 11, 2011, 09:46:03 PM »

Individualism is a word that has been used to mean several different things.

The poet Byron and the philosopher Nietzsche, for example, were 'heroic' individualists who championed something that, however badly misguided, still contained some redeeming qualities, a certain grandeur, and perhaps vague, wordless traces of the cardinal and theological virtues. Their individualism was in fact an 'aristocratic' revolt - sharing something of the spirit of the Renaissance - against the individualism of classical liberalism, whose version - the rational decision-making homo economicus - is again quite different from post-modern individualism, which is bound up with mass consumption and hedonism. These are broad strokes and doubtless more could be made.

So what, if anything, is the essence of individualism? I would say these different manifestations are all children of pride and humanism. What does the Church teach about pride and humanism? :scratchchin: