Democratic individuality: research and responses

¶ … Democratic Individuality?

George Kateb, in "Democratic Individuality and the Claims of Politics," suggests that democratic individuality is rooted in the notion that when an individual's rights are deemed as scared and protected, that individual is then free to explore and fulfill his role as an independent and moral citizen. He considers individualism to be a form of commitment; a commitment to political democracy and a commitment to morality. He supports his viewpoint by referencing the works of famous writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, considering them to be geniuses and ultimately, the originators of the democratic individuality doctrine.

Source Introduction

Zakaras, Alex. Individuality and Mass Democracy: Mill, Emerson, and the Burdens of Citizenship. Oxford University Press, 2009

Alex Zarakas writes that while most of Kateb's suppositions are in direct alignment with those of Emerson, he diverges from Emerson when he submits that individuals can "lose themselves through participation in public life" (119). Zarakas also explains that "Kateb has illustrated Emerson's eagerness to impersonate and sympathetically explore as many conflicting values and ideas as he could" (41).

Patell, Cyrus R.K. Comparative American Studies: Hybridity and Beyond, American Literary History, Vol. 11, 1999

Cyrus R.K. Patell suggests that "Kateb has made a powerful argument about the ways in which Emersonianism represents the fruition of both liberal individualism and American democracy" (183). That argument, contends Patell, is rooted in Kateb's distinction between two types of individualism. The first is based on actual political rights and the second is based on a sense of idealism about those rights.

Critical Summaries

Zakaras has his own set of theories about individuality and democracy, some of which merge with Kateb's and Emersons, and some of which diverge. The concept in which all three of these authors (Zakaras, Kateb and Emerson) seem to be in the greatest alignment is self-reliance. Each of these authors appears to view self-reliance as the ultimate source of freedom.

Patell lauds Kateb and Emerson for their ability to distinguish between true individuality and democracy and idealized individuality and democracy. He agrees with Kateb that true individuality cannot be fully ripened until these two distinctive worlds are merged.

Explanation