The Individualism of America
heathLi Daokuan
Class5, Grade2009, School of Foreign Languages and Literature, Chongqing Normal University
Abstract: The American people believe that they had better not owe anyone, also other people cannot owe them anything. When they are communicating, they are inclined to be active. Judging from tho faiths of American, we can get to know that their perspective of individualism. In addition, a better comprehension of conception and source of the American's individualism is helpful for us to understand its culture.
swanKey word: individualism source American culture儿童节快乐的英文
1 Individualism in America
The faiths of American people is no owing to anyone, also not be owed by anyone. They a
conveyerre tend to be active when they are communicating. They are fond of cope with a ca on his own, and dislike to be interrupted by others. They will also not bother other people. Briefly speaking, they enjoy doing things alone. So, we can say that the American like carrying out individualism. Robert Beria, professor of California University, alleged that"It is the individualism that is the genuine core of American culture." American people's favors of talking about human rights also originate from this thought that the personal right is the most supreme, and the purpo of government is simply to protect persons' rights and profits. The forming of government must bad on the agreement of civilians, and the legal authority also comes from the citizens.[1]
2 About the individualism
tired的意思2.1 The conception of individualism
chaosmen The encyclopedia of Britain have a definition of individualism:"Individualism is a typical thought and philosophy of ..., individualism is a system of value, a theory of humanity, also a attitude and tendency about certain politics economy society a
nd religion.[2]
In the English language, the word "individualism" was first introduced, as a pejorative, by the Owenites in the late 1830s, although it is unclear if they were influenced by Saint-Simonianism or came up with it independently. A more positive u of the term in Britain came to be ud with the writings of James Elishama Smith, who was a millenarian and a Christian Israelite. Although an early Owenite socialist, he eventually rejected its collective idea of property, and found in individualism a "universalism" that allowed for the development of the "original genius." Without individualism, Smith argued, individuals cannot amass property to increa one's happiness. William Maccall, another Unitarian preacher, and probably an acquaintance of Smith, came somewhat later, although influenced by John Stuart Mill, Thomas Carlyle, and German Romanticism, to the same positive conclusions, in his 1847 work "Elements of Individualism".
As commonly ud, an individual is a person or any specific object in a collection. In the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics, ind肤色暗沉的原因
ividual means "indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person." . From the 17th century on, individual indicates parateness, as in individualism. Individuality is the state or quality of being an individual; a person parate from other persons and posssing his or her own needs, goals, and desires.深圳达内
2.2 The source of individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stress "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exerci of one's goals and desires and so value independence and lf-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own interests, whether by society, family or any other group or institution.
Individualism makes the individual its focus and so starts "with the fundamental premi that the human individual is of primary importance in the struggle for liberation." Classical liberalism (including libertarianism), existentialism and anarchism (especially individualist
anarchism) are examples of movements that take the human individual as a central unit of analysis.
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It has also been ud as a term denoting "The quality of being an individual; individuality" related to posssing "An individual characteristic; a quirk." Individualism is thus also associated with artistic and bohemian interests and lifestyles where there is a tendency towards lf creation and experimentation as oppod to tradition or popular mass opinions and behaviors as so also with humanist philosophical positions and ethics.
The word individualism is a creative term made by the French historian and politician—Alexis de Tocqueville, who indicated individualism emphasizes the personal freedom and benefits, including lf-interest components.
2.3 The prentation of individualism
retrieved Just as an old proverb said "God helps tho who help themlves". In America the thoughts related to lf-ego are so stubborn and can be found everywhere. That's why th
ere are plenty of vocabularies expressing one-lf, such as lf-absorption, lf-admiration, ego-centric and so on. American idioms have a lot of lexical terms expressing lf-value, lf-benefit and lf-control, which are the core content of the individualistic system.[3]
There are also many expressions about individualism in American people's daily life except the language itlf. Although I haven't been to America, I've watched lots of American TV ries, and I've got some uful informations from them.
