Individuality and Solidarity: J.S. Mill and the Invention of a “New” Solidarity Liberalism

Abstract

Catherine Audard’s paper proposes an analysis of the concept of individuality in the political and philosophical writings by J.S. Mill. The author demonstrates that the transition from the notion of “individual” (i.e. an abstract “atomic individual”) such as typical of classical liberalism, to the notion of a dynamic and historical “individuality” which is involved in a system of relations and itself is a product of the processes of individualization and autonomization, allowed J.S. Mill to bring about a revolution in liberal thinking. It is owing to this step that the social nature of individual became included among the key notions of liberalism where, as distinct from Marxism, it never acquired a determinist quality. Following this liberalism evolved to a new stage of its development, the social liberalism.