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Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism Hardcover – 30 Jan. 2014

by Larry Siedentop (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 308 ratings
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The new book from Larry Siedentop, acclaimed author of Democracy in Europe, Inventing the Individual is a highly original rethinking of how our moral beliefs were formed and their impact on western society today

This ambitious and stimulating book describes how a moral revolution in the first centuries AD - the discovery of human freedom and its universal potential - led to a social revolution in the west. The invention of a new, equal social role, the individual, gradually displaced the claims of family, tribe and caste as the basis of social organisation. Larry Siedentop asks us to rethink the evolution of the ideas on which modern societies and government are built, and argues that the core of what is now our system of beliefs emerged much earlier than we think. The roots of liberalism - belief in individual liberty, in the fundamental moral equality of individuals, that equality should be the basis of a legal system and that only a representative form of government is fitting for such a society - all these, Siedentop argues, were pioneered by Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages, who drew on the moral revolution carried out by the early church. It was the arguments of canon lawyers, theologians and philosophers from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, rather than the Renaissance, that laid the foundation for liberal democracy.

There are large parts of the world where other beliefs flourish - fundamentalist Islam, which denies the equality of women and is often ambiguous about individual rights and representative institutions; quasi-capitalist China, where a form of utilitarianism enshrines state interests even at the expense of justice and liberty. Such beliefs may foster populist forms of democracy. But they are not liberal. In the face of these challenges, Siedentop urges that understanding the origins of our own liberal ideas is more than ever an important part of knowing who we are.

LARRY SIEDENTOP was appointed to the first post in intellectual history ever established in Britain, at Sussex University in the 1970's. From there he moved to Oxford, becoming Faculty Lecturer in Political Thought and a Fellow of Keble College. His writings include a study of Tocqueville, an edition of Guizot's History of Civilization in Europe, and Democracy in Europe, which has been translated into a dozen languages. Siedentop was made CBE in 2004.

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  1. Print length
    448 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Allen Lane
  4. Publication date
    30 Jan. 2014
  5. Dimensions
    16.03 x 3.81 x 24.03 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0713996447
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0713996449
  8. See all details
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Product description

From the Inside Flap

This ambitious and stimulating book describes how a moral revolution in the first centuries AD - the discovery of human freedom and its universal potential - led to a social revolution in the west. The invention of a new, equal social role, the individual, gradually displaced the claims of family, tribe and caste as the basis of social organisation. Larry Siedentop asks us to rethink the evolution of the ideas on which modern societies and government are built, and argues that the core of what is now our system of beliefs emerged much earlier than we think. The roots of liberalism - belief in individual liberty, in the fundamental moral equality of individuals, that equality should be the basis of a legal system and that only a representative form of government is fitting for such a society - all these, Siedentop argues, were pioneered by Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages, who drew on the moral revolution carried out by the early church. It was the arguments of canon lawyers, theologians and philosophers from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, rather than the Renaissance, that laid the foundation for liberal democracy.

There are large parts of the world where other beliefs flourish - fundamentalist Islam, which denies the equality of women and is often ambiguous about individual rights and representative institutions; quasi-capitalist China, where a form of utilitarianism enshrines state interests even at the expense of justice and liberty. Such beliefs may foster populist forms of democracy. But they are not liberal. In the face of these challenges, Siedentop urges that understanding the origins of our own liberal ideas is more than ever an important part of knowing who we are.

'A most impressive work of philosophical history' - Robert Skidelsky

From the Back Cover

'This is a strange and disturbing moment in Western history. Europeans - out of touch with the roots of their tradition - often seem to lack conviction, while Americans may be succumbing to a dangerously simplistic version of their faith. On neither side of the Atlantic is there an adequate understanding of the relationship between liberal secularism and Christianity. Failure to understand that relationship makes it easier to underestimate the moral content of liberal secularism. If we in the West do not understand the moral depth of our own tradition, how can we hope to shape the conversation of mankind?'
- from the Epilogue

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Allen Lane (30 Jan. 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0713996447
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0713996449
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.03 x 3.81 x 24.03 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 308 ratings

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Larry Siedentop

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4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
308 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Norbert Bannon
5.0 out of 5 stars Cornucopia of a book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 February 2017
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This is a deeply thought provoking book.

I do not pretend to have followed the intricacies of theological and philosophical debate over two millennia. However I did follow the path that Siedentop took me on from ancient Greece through to the foundation of today's liberal secular society.

Siedentop's primary contention is that liberal thought is the offspring of Christianity and that it is Christian moral beliefs that are the ultimate source of the social revolution that has made the West what it is. Today that society can be recognised by its focus on individual freedom and a tolerance of diversity and dissent.

It was initially counterintuitive that religion and secularism are soulmates for I and many like me were educated to think otherwise. However, he argued the case persuasively and with great erudition on this journey of discovery.

The really provoking issue that the book raises is the implications of not acknowledging and even denying that heritage. The author claims that this lack of recognition deprives us of the moral authority to assert the achievement that is liberal secularism. It exposes our values to being criticised for being nothing more than selfish materialism. This crisis of identity equates liberalism with a vacuous non- belief in anything.

There are major challenges that western society currently face, chief of which the wave of populism that is sweeping Europe and the US. Today's populism has many roots including but not limited to the impact of globalisation and technological change on income and wealth disparity, the stagnation in real incomes of blue collar workers, the sense that society is being run for and by a rich political elite. Added to this we have immigration and the increasing number of adherents to Islam which seems to sit uneasily with our ideas of a liberal secular society.

In responding to these challenges we need to be sure of our own value systems, recognising why we are what we are. As Siedentop says - secularism is Europe's noblest achievement, it is its contribution to the creation of world order, it is also Christianity's gift to the world.

In exploring this cornucopia of a book, I uncovered lots of gems. It is a demanding but rewarding read.
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DK
5.0 out of 5 stars Impressively challenging
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 April 2014
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This is a great book with a big theme: that our modern secular society has its origins in Christianity, or as Siedentop concludes, "Secularism is Christianity's gift to the world."

Many people will want to challenge, if not ridicule, this thesis because it runs counter to the standard prevailing view our modern society - characterised by individualism, with its emphasis on human rights and equality - is the product of the Enlightenment, which in turn was a reaction to and rejection of everything Christian. Siedentop marshals his evidence with impressive scholarship and flawless acumen from over two millennia to show this view is a myth which grossly misrepresents history.

It is this misrepresentation which leads to the polarisation of religion and secularism which has become an increasingly worrying feature of contemporary society with fundamentalists at both ends of the spectrum taking up increasingly entrenched positions of intolerance. Siedentop likens this to a 'new civil war' which has the potential to destroy an inclusive, tolerant liberal society. It is this concern which provides the motivation for his book and what makes it so timely.

The current debate over whether we are a Christian country often overlooks the fact that one does not need to be a Christian to see that its influence is embedded in the sort of society we have and the values that make it possible, values that Siedentop shows with eloquent persuasiveness - for this is a beautifully written book - to have sprung from the moral revolution caused by the eruption of this faith into the classical world of antiquity, radically challenging it.

I bought this book partly because of the cover: I became haunted by the face looking out at me as if to seek a conversation: who was this man? what does he stand for? what is his destiny? why is he looking at me? Jan de Leeuw, painted by Jan van Eyck, emerges with distinct individuality from the darkness of the fifteenth century - a largely forgotten period which saw the beginnings of the transformation of European society, when the words 'individual' and 'state' first came to be used. It is a time which holds up a distant mirror which helps us to understand who we are. We need to know this, and we need to know it urgently. Siedentrop provides answers which are both fascinating and challenging.
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Musr Read
Reviewed in Australia on 20 August 2022
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If you want to understand the foundation Christian ideas make to the modern society this is a must read. Dense but understandable
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Client d'Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Lecteur comblé.
Reviewed in Canada on 5 January 2017
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J`ai beaucoup apprécié l`ouverture et la profondeur de pensée de l`auteur. Il nous fait réaliser la grandeur de l`esprit, la richesse de cœur et la profondeur de la foi de ceux et celles qui ont apporté à l`humanité tant de bonté et de beauté. Laurent Nadeau, Edmundston, N.-B., Canada.
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Dr. Terrence McGarty
5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Work on the Development of the Concept of the Individual
Reviewed in the United States on 31 December 2014
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The concept of the Individual has evolved over the past two millennia and the discussion by Siedentop is a superb overview of that process. It has been a complex process, moving from family and tribal identity to the ability to have an identity as a self, an individual. Along with that ability to identify with self, a single person and an individual comes many attributes as well as the basis for many of our current theories of political science.

Siedentop has presented a brilliant addition to the body of materials on the development of the individual as a vital political and social entity. This book is an excellent presentation of his ideas. It is well written, encompasses all the key issues, and his arguments are concise, compelling, and highly informative.

Siedentop starts with the Ancient world as a world of families and towns. Athens was a typical example of the Ancient World and the Platonic tales of Socrates were key to their understanding. Loyalty and identity were to the city of Athens, or later, to the Empire of Rome, via ones family. In Plato’s Gorgias, Protagoras and Meno we see the loyalty to Athens and in turn to the gods as being the means to relate, the family being the linkage binding all to the city state. In Chapters 1 through 3 the authors lays out how he sees such relationships.

Then in Chapter 4 we see the author introduce Paul of Tarsus. On p 60 the authors presents the opening salvo of the individualism of Paul. The “one” in Christ is a double edged sword. One is “one” as a group in Christ but one is also “one” morally, having an individual path to salvation? The concept of individual salvation or perdition is developed to its fullest in Paul. On p 61 the author asserts that it is with Paul that the “fusion marks the birth of a “truly” individual will”.

On pp 74-75 the author discusses Marcion and his heresy of extreme Paul individualism. The soul is individual in each person and salvation is an individual act and the communal nature of the Old Testament must be rejected with the individual responsibility of the New Testament. In fact Marcinon said all one needs is Paul’s Epistles and Luke, and reject the rest. For that he was rejected as a heretic.

The author then examines monasticism and the martyrs in the process to building up to Augustine. Chapter 8 is an analysis of Augustine in the context of the individual. Augustine was on the one hand a strong adherent to Paul while also being imbued in the classic culture of the Roman Empire. In a sense the author sees a strong flow of individual identity in the writing of the Confessions. The author also included the Pelagian conflict, which in a sense if a conflict of the individual qua person and the individual qua grace. Without grace man is doomed. Yet man’s actions alone cannot provide redemption, each individual must, according to Augustine; have grace given if he is ever to gain eternal redemption. One can see a stand for individuality in Augustine but the demand of grace as given and not earned has always sent a penumbra of concern.

On pp 132-133 the author discusses Gregory I and Columbanus. This could have represented an interesting point for contrast. Gregory was from a classic old Roman family and had even been the martyr of Rome before becoming its Bishop. Columbanus was an Irish monk who established dozens of monastic institutions of study, and was in conflict with Gregory, albeit with respect. Columbanus as an Irish monk had never had his country subject to Rome, and thus in this interaction we could see the move from old Rome to the new non-Roman church.

The author progresses by moving on to the development of natural law and natural rights in Chapter 16. This is a wonderful exposition of these topics. Natural Law was a vehicle to explain the basis for law extra the Church and Natural Rights became the cornerstone for what became individual rights.

Chapter 21 is a discussion of the Friars. In a sense this is a battle between Aquinas and Ockham, between Dominican and Franciscan, between group and individual, between Aristotle and the opening of new philosophical insights. In Chapter 21 the author nicely uses the Franciscan issue of property and the New Testament to discuss property and individual ownership. To follow Christ one must abjure one’s property. To do such, one must have some nexus with the property as an individual in the first place. This may very well be the basis for Locke’s subsequent arguments. Chapter 22 then is a focus on Ockham. And it follows in detail in Chapter 23. I felt that these were the best chapters in the book, but perhaps it is my bias towards Ockham.

William of Ockham is extolled throughout the book. It is a worthy discussion. Ockham was a nominalist; namely he believed that universals were a fiction and that subjects were in essence individuals, not humans, but individual things. Thus, when we say; “The daylily is blue.” we mean a specific daylily, the subject. Yet Ockham would allow for the predicate “blue” to have some nexus to a universal called blue. Daylilies as a universal do not exist. A specific daylily like the one I may hold does exist, as an individual. But to extend this and say that the specific daylily is blue, do we mean as a predicate some universal concept of blue or blue like a coneflower? As we progress to a more scientific venue we may use a predicate like the spectrum of the blue we want, and then say blue like “this”. Thus ultimately we do not use the construct of a universal but an individual for the subject and likewise for the predicate.

Locke clearly must have had a clear understanding and acceptance of the individual when he developed his concept of property. For Locke property was the result of an individual providing some form of work and the conversion of that labor into a one to one relationship with the property; namely the individual owned the property and from that he had certain rights.

To expand on Siedentop we must then look towards the political philosophers who integrate Individuals into society. As de Tocqueville noticed about mid-19th century America, there was a preponderance of Individualism, an Individualism not of the type that abhors collective associations, quite the contrary, but an Individualism of the type that demands individual equality of rights and opportunity. I would argue that to understand this strain in de Tocqueville that one must read his American analysis in conjunction with his analysis of the French Revolution and of Ireland under English suppression and subjugation.

On the end the author tries to connect the individualism of Christianity with the secular goals of modern society. Also the author does see the threat to modern political theory from the ascendancy of more rigid past religions which eschew the individual and build on the tribe.

Overall the book is a powerful and superbly presented argument for the individual, and their rights. The argument that the concept of the individual did not suddenly arise from the Enlightenment is powerful and compelling. This book is a valuable contribution to understanding the individual, individualism, and the conflict with alternative societal political constructs which demean the individual and their rights.
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Enrico Fröhlich
5.0 out of 5 stars Ein Buch für Interessenten von alternativer Geschichtsbetrachtung oder Geschichtsanalyse
Reviewed in Germany on 26 August 2016
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Dieser Leser wurde am Gymnasium dahingehend ausgebildet, dass es die Aufklärung gewesen ist, welche das "finstere Mittelalter" überwunden habe. Larry Siedentop präsentiert eine ernsthafte alternative Sichtweise der Entwicklung vom Menschen in der Antike zum modernen Menschen. Ich habe nie damit gerechnet, dass ausgerechnet das Kirchenrecht in Antike und Mittelalter der Motor der Entwicklung zum modernen westlichen LIberalismus (in gutem Sinne) sein könnte. Das Buch ist auch deshalb aktuell, weil wir in Europa zur Zeit intensiv mit fundamentalistischem Gedankengut konfrontiert werden. Ein gutes Buch für alle diejenigen, die sich über die Mainstream-Geschichtslehre hinaus informieren wollen. Siedentop schreibt trotz der manchmal komplizierten Gedankengänge ein klares und logisches Englisch. Ich gebe fünf Sterne.
9 people found this helpful
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Rolf Hasse
5.0 out of 5 stars ein Stück Geschichte der Philosophie Europas
Reviewed in Germany on 30 September 2019
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Ein sehr gelungener Überblick eines der wichtigsten Ergebnisse der Aufklärung, die die politische Geschichte Europas bestimmt hat
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