As commonly used, individual refers to a person or to any specific object in a collection. Vernacular refers to the Native language of a country or a locality The term person is used in Common sense to mean an individual Human being. In the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics, individual means "indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person. Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection analysis interpretation or explanation and presentation of Data. Metaphysics is the branch of Philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science " (q. v. "The problem of proper names"). "A proper name a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about" writes John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic From the seventeenth century on, individual indicates separateness, as in individualism. ^[1] Individuality is the state or quality of being an individual; a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs, goals, and desires.

Contents 1 Descartes 2 Empiricism 3 Hegel 4 Existentialism 5 Martin Buber's I and Thou 6 Buddhism 7 References 8 See also

Descartes

In his statement Cogito ergo sum ("I think therefore I am"), Rene Descartes posits the notion the individual subject, distinct from the world around him or her. " la Cogito ergo sum " (I think therefore I am sometimes misquoted as la Dubito ergo cogito ergo sum (Latin "I doubt therefore I think therefore I am" This is the most famous articulation of subject-object dualism (see subject-object problem) in the Western philosophical tradition. The subject-object problem is a longstanding philosophical issue

Empiricism

Early empiricists such as Ibn Tufail^[2] and John Locke introduced the idea of the individual as a tabula rasa ("blank slate"), shaped from birth by experience and education. In Philosophy, empiricism is a theory of Knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from Experience. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> Ibn Tufail (c 1105 Guadix Spain &ndash 1185 (full Arabic name John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704 was an English Philosopher. Tabula rasa ( Latin: blank slate) refers to the epistemological thesis that individual human beings are born with no built-in mental content This ties into the idea of the liberty and rights of the individual, society as a social contract between rational individuals, and the beginnings of individualism as a doctrine. Social contract describes a broad class of republican theories whose subjects are implied agreements by which people form Nations and maintain a Social order

Hegel

Hegel regarded history as the unfolding of God's plan through a process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. The role of the individual in this view was as an agent of this unfolding--a part of a greater whole.

Existentialism

With the rise of existentialism, Kierkegaard rejected Hegel's notion of the individual as subordinated to the forces of history. Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives and that this essence follows from their existence Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (ˈsœːɐn ˈkʰiɐ̯kəˌɡ̊ɒˀ in Danish Anglicized as;) Instead, he elevated the individual's subjectivity and capacity to choose his or her own fate. Later Existentialists built upon this notion. Nietzsche, for example, examines the individual's need to define him/her own self and circumstances in his concept of the will to power and the heroic ideal of the Übermensch. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist The will to power ( German: " Der Wille zur Macht " is a prominent concept in the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. The Übermensch ( German; English: Overman, Superman) is a Concept in the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. The individual is also central to Sartre's philosophy, which emphasizes individual authenticity, responsibility, and free will. Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (21 June 1905 &ndash 15 April 1980 commonly known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (ʒɑ̃ pol saʁtʁə was a French The question of free will In both Sartre and Nietzsche, the individual is called upon to create his or her own values, rather than rely on external, socially imposed codes of morality.

Martin Buber's I and Thou

In I and Thou, Martin Buber presents the individual as something that changes depending on how he or she is relating to the outside world, which can be in one of two ways: In the I-it relation, the individual relates to the external world in terms of objects that are separate from him or herself (an "I" looking at an "it"). Ich und Du, usually translated as I and Thou, is a book by Martin Buber, published in 1923 and first translated to English in 1937 Martin Buber ( 8 February 1878 – 13 June 1965) was an Austrian Israeli Jewish Philosopher, translator In the I-thou relation, the individual has a personal connection to the external, and feels almost a part of whatever he or she is relating to; the subject-object dichotomy disappears (see Nondualism). Nondualism implies that things appear distinct while not being separate

Buddhism

In Buddhism, the concept of the individual lies in anatman, or "no-self. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices In Buddhist philosophy, anatta ( Pāli) or anātman ( Sanskrit) refers to the notion of "not-self" " According to anatman, the individual is really a series of interconnected processes that, working together, give the appearance of being a single, separated whole. In this way, anatman, together with anicca, resembles a kind of bundle theory. Impermanence ( Sanskrit: अनित्य anitya; Pāli: अनिच्चा anicca; Tibetan: མི་​རྟག་​པ་ Bundle theory, originated by the 18th century Scottish philosopher David Hume, is the ontological theory about objecthood in which an object consists only Instead of an atomic, indivisible self distinct from reality (see Subject-object problem), the individual in Buddhism is understood as an interrelated part of an ever-changing, impermanent universe (see Nondualism). The subject-object problem is a longstanding philosophical issue Nondualism implies that things appear distinct while not being separate

References

1. ^ Abbs 1986, cited in Klein 2005, pp. 26-27
2. ^ G. A. Russell (1994), The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England, pp. 224-262, Brill Publishers, ISBN 9004094598. Founded in 1683 in Leiden, The Netherlands, Brill (known as E

• Gracia, Jorge J. E. (1988) Individuality: An Essay on the Foundations of Metaphysics. State Univ. of New York Press.
• Klein, Anne Carolyn (1995) Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self. ISBN 0-8070-7306-7.

See also

• Atom (disambiguation)
• Consciousness
• Cultural identity
• Identity
• Independent
• Person
• Self (philosophy)
• Self (sociology)
• Self (psychology)

Consciousness has been defined loosely as a constellation of attributes of Mind such as Subjectivity, Self-awareness, Sentience, and the Cultural identity is the (feeling of identity of a group or Culture, or of an Individual as far as he or she is influenced by her belonging to a group Identity is an Umbrella term used throughout the Social sciences to describe an individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete separate entity Independence is the Self-government of a Nation, Country, or State by its residents and population or some portion thereof generally exercising The term person is used in Common sense to mean an individual Human being. Self is broadly defined as the essential qualities that make a person distinct from all others In Sociology, the self refers to an individual person from the perspective of that person The self is a key construct in several schools of Psychology, broadly referring to the cognitive representation of one's identity

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