Författare: Jesper Ahlin Marceta

Many people probably associate nationalism with aggressive and reactionary xenophobia. This is not what nationalism needs to be. In her book Why Nationalism, Yael Tamir offers an analysis of the rise of our contemporary populist nationalism and argues that liberals “must learn to harness nationalism to their cause” (p. 182). In Tamir’s analysis, the “hyperglobalism” of the last decades has benefited a well-educated urban elite, leaving the rest of the Western world’s population vulnerable to social and economic forces that are beyond their control. This has caused the vulnerable to reevaluate their risks and opportunities and led them to assume…

This is an excerpt from a manuscript on moral individualism. Charles Taylor develops his theory of authenticity in light of individualism as a “source of worry” (Taylor 1991, p. 2). The rise of individualism has given people a right to “choose for themselves their own pattern of life, to decide in conscience what convictions to espouse, to determine the shape of their lives in a whole host of ways that their ancestors couldn’t control” (ibid). Before individualism, people “were often locked into a given place, a role and station that was properly theirs and from which it was almost unthinkable…

Obdurodon tharalkooschild, an extinct species of platypus, was twice as big as its modern relatives. It lived in fresh waters where it preyed on turtle, frog, and fish. Everything we know about O. tharalkooschild is from a tooth found by paleontologists in 2012. One. Single. Tooth. Given such lack of evidence, how can we claim to know anything about its size, habits, and diet? Is knowledge even possible? Some philosophers of science are pessimists about our prospects to learn about the deep past, of which evidence is scarce. Adrian Currie is not. In his book Rock, Bone, and Ruin, Currie…

Kritiker brukar hävda att individualister inte förstår människan. Den individualistiska bilden av människan som en atom, självskapad och avskuren från sociala sammanhang, är helt enkelt fel. Argumentet har upprepats i över 200 år. Till exempel avfärdade Edmund Burke individualismen eftersom den “förhåller sig till mänskliga handlingar och intressen efter den simpla uppfattningen att de är avskalade från alla relationer, i den nakenhet och ensamhet som kommer av metafysisk abstraktion” (Burke 1790, s 7). Ett halvt århundrade efter Burke skrev även Karl Marx att den individualistiska idén om människor som isolerade varelser “är lika mycket en absurditet som utvecklingen av språk…

Den konservative politiske teoretikern Patrick Deneen gästade nyligen Sverige för att tala om sin bok Why Liberalism Failed. En av Deneens teser är att liberalismens individualism underminerar samhällets små gemenskaper, som exempelvis familjen och olika lokala samfund, vilket leder till ett instabilt samhälle. Individualismen är mycket riktigt dominerande i liberala demokratier. Det finns gott om forskning som bekräftar att individualistiska normer är mer utspridda i västerländska samhällen än på andra platser, liksom att individualismen är på framfart globalt. Individualismen är så dominant i vår del av världen att den kan förstås som en överideologi: vår ideologi. Vi borde därför idka självkritik. Ett första…

Prof. William Galston, a former advisor to President Clinton, is specialized on public policy. In his book Anti-Pluralism, he argues from a center-left position that the rise of populism cannot be explained only with reference to economic factors; a real understanding must account for the illiberal, anti-pluralist, nature of populism. Galston’s theory of the nature of populism is mainstream. Populists think of “the people” as a homogenous mass (p. 5) and populist leaders claim to have an “intuitive bond” with “the people” that “cuts deeper than more formal systems of public authorization” such as democratic votes (p. 23). The central…

This is an excerpt from a manuscript on moral individualism (image). Mill was a methodological individualist, in the sense that he believed that social phenomena can be reduced to, or explained with reference to, individual behavior (see, e.g., Mill 1974 [1843], pp. 877ff; see also Zouboulakis 2002). He also defended a moral version of individualism as individuality which is similar to, yet distinct from, Marx’s theory. Like Marx, Mill’s theory of individualism concerns the realization of inherent properties in individuals. However, contrary to Marx, the individual human being in Mill’s theory “is the same metaphysical individual whether in or out…

This is an excerpt from a manuscript on individualism. All references are to Dewey, J. (1999). Individualism Old and New. Promotheus Books. John Dewey developed a theory of individualism as a response to what he saw as “complete economic determinism” (p. 6). He wrote about early 20th century Americans (ibid): We live as if economic forces determined the growth and decay of institutions and settled the fate of individuals. Liberty becomes a well-nigh obsolete term; we start, go, and stop at the signal of a vast industrial machine. Dewey did not oppose profit-driven industry and business, but the mechanization of…

Jag skrev i ett tidigare inlägg om individualism, med anledning av att ämnet har diskuterats i svensk politik de senaste veckorna. Forskaren och debattören Patrick Deneen menar att individualismen leder till politisk instabilitet. Jag är skeptisk till Deneens teori, men frågan vad individualism leder till förtjänar eftertanke. Individualismen är grundligt studerad i samhällsvetenskaperna. En ledande forskare i detta sammanhang är Geert Hofstede, som bland annat har utvecklat metoder för att mäta graden av individualism i ett samhälle. I en studie används en gradskala med individualism i ena ändpunkten och kollektivism i den andra (Hofstede et al. 2010, s 92): Individualism…

Karl Marx is one of the most influential political theorists in history. His criticism of capitalism was foundational to much of 20th century socialism, and is likely to remain central also in the foreseeable future. But, is there a place for the individual—the ideological core of liberalism—in Marxism? In his book, Ian Forbes argues that there is. Marx rejected methodological individualism. He also rejected classical moral individualism, i.e., the view that the individual is the basic element of political analysis, arguing that it is an element of the capitalist superstructure. ”The impact of capitalism,” Forbes explains, ”is to individuate its…