Juris

“DOCT RINE OF INDIVIDUAL AND
INDI VID UA LISM”
SUBMITTED BY:
VAISHNAVI PRAKASH, 1393
3RD YEAR, 6TH SEMESTER
B.A. LL.B.(HONS.)
SUBMITTED TO:
DR. MANORANJAN KUMAR
FACULTY OF JURISPRUDENCE
THIS ROUGH DRAFT IS SUBMITTED IN THE PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE

PROJECT REPORT IN THE SUBJECT OF JURISPRUDENCE- II FOR THE
COMPLETION OF B.A. LL.B.(HONS.) COURSE.
12TH MARCH 2018
CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

INTRODCUTION
Individualism, political and social philosophy that emphasizes the moral worth of the
individual. Although the concept of an individual may seem straightforward, there are many
ways of understanding it, both in theory and in practice. The term individualism itself dates
from the 19th century.
Individualisme was used pejoratively in France to signify the sources of social dissolution
and anarchy and the elevation of individual interests above those of the collective. The term’s
negative connotation was employed by French reactionaries, nationalists, conservatives,
liberals, and socialists alike, despite their different views of a feasible and desirable social
order. In Germany, the ideas of individual uniqueness and self-realization contributed to the
cult of individual genius and were later transformed into an organic theory of national
community. According to this view, state and society are not artificial constructs erected on
the basis of a social contract but instead unique and self-sufficient cultural wholes. In
England, individualism encompassed religious nonconformity and economic liberalism in its
various versions, including both laissez-faire and moderate state-interventionist approaches.
In the United States, individualism became part of the core American ideology by the 19th
century, incorporating the influences of New England Puritanism, Jeffersonianism, and the
philosophy of natural rights. American individualism was universalist and idealist but
acquired a harsher edge as it became infused with elements of social Darwinism.
The French aristocratic political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville described individualism

in terms of a kind of moderate selfishness that disposed humans to be concerned only with
their own small circle of family and friends. Observing the workings of the American
democratic tradition for Democracy in America, Tocqueville wrote that by leading “each
citizen to isolate himself from his fellows and to draw apart with his family and friends,”
individualism sapped the “virtues of public life,” for which civic virtue and association were
a suitable remedy. For the Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt, individualism signified the cult
of privacy, which, combined with the growth of self-assertion, had given “impulse to the
highest individual development” that flowered in the European Renaissance.
The French sociologist Émile Durkheim identified two types of individualism: the utilitarian
egoism of the English sociologist and philosopher Herbert Spencer, who, according to
Durkheim, reduced society to “nothing more than a vast apparatus of production and
exchange,” and the rationalism of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, the French
philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of
Man and of the Citizen, which has as “its primary dogma the autonomy of reason and as its
primary rite the doctrine of free enquiry.” John Locke, Bernard de Mandeville, David Hume,
Adam Ferguson, Adam Smith, and Edmund Burke, maintained that the “spontaneous
collaboration of free men often creates things which are greater than their individual minds
can ever fully comprehend” and accepted that individuals must submit “to the anonymous
and seemingly irrational forces of society.”
Individualism also has been thought to distinguish modern Western societies from Eastern
ones, such as India and China, where, it is said, the community or the nation is valued above
the individual and an individual’s role in the political and economic life of his community is
largely determined by his membership in a specific class
AIMS & OBJECTIVES
The researcher through this project work aims to:
 Gain greater knowledge on the Doctrine of Individualism.

 Find out the reasons behind the evolution of the Doctrine of Individualism.
 Find out about the criticisms on the Doctrine of Individualism.
HYPOTHESIS
The researcher is of the prior belief that
 The Doctrine of Individualism as gained importance in the twentieth century.

 The Doctrine bears similarities with the Natural Rights Philosophy.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The researcher intends to adopt a doctrinal method of research for the purposes of this
research work. The doctrinal research methodology provides an ample scope to examine the
existing literature from both primary and non-primary sources. Doctrinal methodology
mainly helps the researcher to find out the gaps in the existing provisions of the law basing
on statutes, international and national documents, case law, juristic writings and other
scholarly literature available on the area of the research. An examination of these sources
relevant to the topic of study certainly helps the researchers to find out the ways and means to
fill the gaps in the existing legal system and also to suggest the redressal mechanism that
need to be injected by the State in its future policy formulations
SOURCES OF DATA
In order to complete the research study, the researcher will collect the material through
various primary and secondary sources of data.
Primary sources such as the occasional policy papers of the State, statutes, commentaries,
case-law, juristic opinions, policy formulations of various governmental bodies, the reports
published by governmental, non-governmental and international organisations.
Secondary sources reviewing the text books, existing literature on the area, the views and
perspectives of stake holders, policy makers and all other relevant sections of the society
which includes the efforts of charitable organizations, non-governmental organizations and
philanthropists.
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
Since the researcher is a student of law, she has access to a limited area and knowledge. The
researcher having read only a very few articles on Jurisprudence could understand the
problem clearly but it would have been clearer if she would have read more books and
authors. The researcher has limited time for the project. The historical need and background
is also necessary for having a bird’s eye view of the particular topic and it gets developed
only by effective and extended reading over a long period of time. However the researcher
only has access to limited amount of work that is available in the library. The researcher has a
restricted access to the reports of the law commission for reasons of non-availability in
hardbound or paperback formats in the library that is accessible by the researcher. But the
researcher will still attempt to take out the best possible work.
TENTATIVE CHAPERIZATION
The researcher will run into the following chapters:
1) Introduction
2) The Doctrine of Individualism
3) Followers of Individualism
4) Critical Analysis of Individualism
5) Conclusion and Suggestions
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. American Individualism, by Herbert Hoover ( Literary Licensing, 2006)
2.Individualism Old and New, by John Dewey (Prometheus Books, 1999)

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“DOCT RINE OF INDIVIDUAL AND

INDI VID UA LISM”

VAISHNAVI PRAKASH, 1393

3RD YEAR, 6TH SEMESTER

DR. MANORANJAN KUMAR

THIS ROUGH DRAFT IS SUBMITTED IN THE PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE

12TH MARCH 2018

CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

The French aristocratic political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville described individualism

AIMS & OBJECTIVES

The researcher through this project work aims to:

 Gain greater knowledge on the Doctrine of Individualism.

The researcher is of the prior belief that

 The Doctrine of Individualism as gained importance in the twentieth century.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The researcher will run into the following chapters:

2) The Doctrine of Individualism

5) Conclusion and Suggestions

1. American Individualism, by Herbert Hoover ( Literary Licensing, 2006)

2.Individualism Old and New, by John Dewey (Prometheus Books, 1999)

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